


Altera

by orphan_account



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Arranged Marriage, Dubious Consent, Kidnapping, M/M, Monsters, Mpreg, Other, Past Child Abuse, Power Play
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-08 19:07:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe is a homeless drifter who likes his anonymity.  Living out of an abandoned warehouse and keeping a shitty stock-job at a dive bar suit him fine.  Nobody asks questions.  He doesn't bother anybody and nobody bothers him.  He's scraped together a neat little uncomplicated existence until the truth he's been avoiding his entire adult life returns to stalk him.  </p><p>The monsters are coming, they're going for the throat and prisoners are not an option.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

ALTERA

PROLOGUE

 

 

Joe had blown in to El Otro like a tumble weed; a raggedy, reedy creature all askew and covered in the dirt of the road.  He was a strange, forgettable sort, skinny and lean from youth and mean living with his eyes perpetually locked to the ground from beneath a head of unruly dark curls.  His face was sharp, sculpted of catlike angles that sat at the cusp of manhood with the baby-fat newly drained away.  He’d attracted no attention upon his arrival armed only with a stained duffel bag and a set of stiff shoulders.  He didn’t mind it, though.  He liked it that way.  For a person like Joe, anonymity was a blessing more than a curse.

It had made it all that much easier to settle in.

El Otro was a city like any other, Joe believed when first he stepped foot into its bustling decay.  Sure, it lacked the heat and aggressive boredom of Iowa, but at its heart flowed the same lifeblood that had somehow sustained the last place he’d rambled through.  It had the same dull-eyed people, the same vertigo-inducing skyscrapers, the same deep brown shitty smells that seemed to lurk in every alley and the same bleak, bitter palette of dim, fading gray.  It was also full of the same gnawing need for expansion as every other metropolis, which meant it boasted a wealth of forgotten, abandoned spaces just ripe for any drifter to stake a claim on.

Needless to say, Joe had made it his business to do just that and before the first day had dragged itself to a close he’d holed up in the smallest warehouse drenched in the salty sweat of the bay.  Years of spray had rusted parts of it out and the whole thing creaked in the wind, but he’d unpacked his duffle bag, spread out his living space and carved out his place.  By the end of the first week he’d even managed to steal a real mattress out of a nearby dumpster and he was set.  Nobody bothered him and he didn’t bother anyone else.

He was lucky enough to still have his identification paperwork from when he’d been discharged from the orphanage so when it came time to find a job, he didn’t have to jump through anyone else’s hoops.  By the end of his first month in El Otro, Joe had found a job working stock out of a seedy bar called _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ only a few blocks away from his warehouse.  The manager had taken him on as a joke in the beginning, figuring the skinny little streak of nothing would tire after an overwhelming first night, but when his new hire had proven more than willing to shoulder the hefty, menial labour, he’d kept him on out of apathy.  At least Joe showed up for his shifts and got everything done. 

No one bothered him and he didn’t bother anyone else.  Joe had become another thread in El Otro’s tapestry, buried far down beneath the rest, hidden.  That was what he liked about big cities.  Nobody asked questions and nobody cared.  In a place devoid of personality, it was so easy to forget that memory existed.  You could live each day as it came, letting them blur into one another in one long chain of blissful abandon.   

In the end, a year passed and Joe, buried like a tick unnoticed beneath the city’s skin, had simply stayed.

~***~

It was the beginning of a long August in El Otro and the night was thick with the lingering heat of the summer just past.  It was a slow night at _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ and Joe had taken up a spot on a crate near the back of the bar, soaking up a bit of the misty chill radiating off of a half-empty refrigerator unit of sweating beer bottles.  He watched the few patrons as they lingered at the bar, dozy and half inebriated as they tried to make time with the lone waitress, a sharp little number in red named Sue.  They didn’t stand a chance.

Nobody ever did.

Joe grinned as another few drunks lumbered off to a table.  For as much as he avoided people, he found he liked Sue.  He’d found out from his first two months working at Straddlin’ Sally’s that she’d pretty much terrorized the owner into hiring her on after she’d run away from home at 15 and she’d worked there ever since.  He felt a kinship with her.  They sat on the lower rung of life and were happy to do so.  They didn’t owe anybody a damn thing.  The only difference was that, unlike Joe, Sue was a firecracker.  She was a supernova in a dark sky and attention drifted her way whether she wanted it or no whereas Joe was just another shadow.  Sue could handle herself, though.  She was quick as a snake with a mean right hook and several pending assault charges that never seemed to go anywhere.

As the new souls she’d disappointed wandered off, the bar itself went dead and Sue turned her attention to Joe over in his corner.  Next thing he knew, there was a bottle of water being waved in his face between jet-black nails.

“Drink it so I know you haven’t just died over here, Coffee Stain,” she said in her clipped city tones.

Joe took it obediently and snapped open the cap, quiet for the moment. 

Sue had taken to calling him Coffee Stain towards the beginning.  She’d had one look at him and proclaimed that he was thin as her carpet, his eyes dull as the coffee stains in it.  He’d only shrugged, pitching her into a fit of surprised laughter.  Apparently the labour monkey they’d had around before him had taken pretty poorly to a similar welcome and she’d expected more of the same.  She’d taken a shine to him then.  Sue took a liking to anyone who could take her abuse and those people were few and far in between.

Sighing, Sue raked a hand through her hair (it was black this week) and plunked down on the crate next to him, “It’s a tomb in here.  You wanna kick the last of these sad-sacks out and walk me home?”

“Jonah won’t like you kicking out customers, Sue,” Joe said in his Midwestern sort of drawl, just as rough as the rest of him.

Sue snorted, “You know Jonah’s too fuckin’ scared of me to stop me and besides, you’ll kick them out.  I have to close down till.”

“Why can’t I shut down the till?” Joe picked up their old argument as she tried to force him into interacting with people again.

“Because you can’t read or count for shit, honey,” she informed him with great finality.

Joe grumbled into his water bottle, “I can read…”

Sue was already up and heading back towards the register, ending the argument as neatly as that. 

Capping his water bottle with a sigh, Joe stood and went about the task of turning their drunken regulars out onto the street for the night.  He was still a slim thing, but he’d put on enough muscle during the last year of shifting crates every night that he could at least have a bit of authority when he felt like it.  It took about twenty minutes before the last one was out; swaying over to vomit unceremoniously into the street while Joe locked the door behind him.  Done and dusted.  He turned to find Sue already gathering up her purse.

“That was fast,” he said, joining her by the back door.

She shrugged airily, unconcerned, “Dead night.  Same regulars ordering the same amount of the same thing makes it easy to figure out.  Only difference was Lou tried to get in my panties with bourbon tonight instead of beer.”

“Big spender,” Joe quipped with a tiny, wry quirk of his lips, shoving his hands into the pockets of his ratty jeans.

“Careful or someone might think you’ve actually got a sense of humour rattling around in that empty head, Coffee Stain,” Sue said, smirking right back and slipping into the alley out the back door with Joe on her heels.

Once they’d locked up, they walked out under the sickly yellow light of the dying street lamp that occupied the corner left of the bar.  Sue looped one arm through Joe’s, forcing him to escort her like the real lady she would never be, the two of them playing pretend silently for her benefit.  Their footsteps echoed on the pavement while the din of the club-district shimmered in the air behind them like a dirty mirage.  She leaned in close to him, personable in a way only she was allowed to be.  As they moved further and further into the ghetto housing district where Sue lived, the silence stretched between them.

Sue squeezed gently on Joe’s arm before breaking the spell, “Hey, Joe.  You’ve been walking me home for a year.  Why don’t you ever let me walk you home?”

“Because then you’d have to walk home alone from my place,” he replied without missing a beat.

It earned him an eyeroll of pure derision, “Tell me another one.  Anyone tries to mug us, I’ll be the one protecting your ass and you know it…or did you forget when I stuffed you in a freezer last week for forgetting my birthday.”

“…I let you do that,” he offered by way of rebuttal, feeble though it was. 

Sue didn’t even offer a retort to that, which was probably kinder in the end.  With that, the silence descended again, Joe having successfully shaken his companion from her course…at least for the evening.  The only sounds became their footsteps once again and the occasional bark from a dog.  Here and there a baby’s wail pierced the night as they went deeper into the ghetto until they stood in front of the peeling paint on Sue’s front door, one number hanging askew and one missing entirely.

The drifter took her as far as her stoop and stood at the bottom while she unlocked the door, her nose wrinkling, “…Ugh.  I’m gonna have to talk to the Caretaker again.  This place reeks.  It’s freaking me out.”

“What’s wrong?” Joe asked, taking one step up onto the landing.

“Just stinks.  It’s weird.  It’s not like mold, but it kinda is? I don’t know.  Maybe that weird Polish lady is trying to make an indoor garden again.  It smells like dirt.  Anyway, don’t worry about it.  Good night, Joe.  See you tomorrow,” Sue said, wrinkling her nose before dismissing it and finally closing the door with a click that seemed to echo down the street.

She never noticed how Joe had frozen in his tracks at her casual observation.  She hadn’t seen how he’d lifted his nose to the air ever so slightly while trying to catch a hint of the scent she was talking about.  The door had slid shut before she saw the little shudder pass through his body and of course she didn’t see just how fast he turned and legged it away.  As a matter of fact, Joe rarely rushed.  It was easier to get noticed when you did, but he had never felt the need to hide away in his safe little warehouse corner more than in that moment.

He didn’t just rush.

He ran.


	2. The Man at the Door

ALTERA

CHAPTER ONE  
“The Man at the Door”

August had set in full and heady now, the stink of hot trash slowly fading, carried away with the last traces of Summer heat.  It had given way to the clammy scent of fish floating in from the docks that bordered the warehouse district, threading here and there through city streets.  The sleepy-eyed languor that had absorbed El Otro during the sweltering months was quickly dissipating, taken over by the low-grade fervor stirred up by new students arriving for the local University’s new term.  Incidentally, work picked up at _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ while all the new students, budding with bravado, scrabbled to find the place that would be their ‘stomping grounds’.  It brought in a flurry of noise and falsified identification cards.

Sue busied herself behind the bar, hands flying as she tried to serve orders and send the baby-faced fakers packing all at once.  She had the grim look she usually wore when over-burdened with stupidity and Joe almost had it in him to pity her.  Still, at least he didn’t have to go behind the bar, ducking out every now and then to seize a new keg when one inevitably ran out.  They’d been at it for hours and his black-and-white raglan clung to his narrow frame with sweat as he shimmied in behind Sue at the bar to start hooking the latest drum up to the taps.

“This is insane,” Sue muttered down to him around a false smile as yet another meat-headed boy leaned over the bar a little too enthusiastically.

Joe hissed back up at her, “Then bitch at Jonah to get a bouncer.”

“Cheap bastard wouldn’t even consider it,” she snapped back, lightning quick while slinging a bottle of Budweiser to a youth of legitimate age (though not intellect).

The new keg hooked up, Joe made to scuttle away, but Sue, sensing weakness, snatched him by the back of his shirt, “Oh no.  You stay here and help me, Coffee Stain.  I’ll send you for stock when I need it, but until then, I need another pair of hands here.”

“But - ” Joe tried to protest, already attempting an awkward slither out of her grasp.

“Either your hands help me here, or I mount them above the bar,” the harried woman informed him blackly.

Well, that settled that then.

Defeated by his frightening co-worker, Joe took a place behind her at the bar.  He still let Sue take orders and ring customers up, but he quickly found her barking the requests back at him.  He was only lucky he’d watched her work long enough to know how to pull at half-decent pint without thoroughly fucking it up (though he was shit out of luck when it came to cocktails).  It didn’t take too long for the two of them to work into a sort of rhythm, getting the rowdy lot settled with drinks to go shout at each other instead before they both very nearly collapsed on the bar.  The entire front of Sue’s green dressed was stained with drinks sloshed by clumsy hands, Joe’s raglan almost a lost cause from sweat and a hastily slung pint.

“Jesus,” Sue panted as the chaos moved away from the vicinity of the bar itself, “I fucking hate Rush week.  We shouldn’t have to put up with this.  None of them end up being regulars anyway.”

“Perils of the public, I guess,” Joe said with a shrug, crouching down behind the bar with his chin on his knees.

Sue considered him with a moment, pursing her dark-stained lips, “Speaking of peril, you haven’t walked me home in over a week, Coffee Stain.  Don’t tell me you’ve got anything better to do at three in the morning.  You’re too boring.  What’s going on?”

Her co-worker peered up at her from beneath his dark curls, blinking owlishly and going for innocent, “I thought you said you were tough enough for both of us?”

“Don’t be a smartass.  You know it won’t distract me,” Sue snipped.

“Yes it will,” he replied, face perfectly neutral.

“No, it won’t,” she argued back before realizing what he was doing and thumping him once on top of the head with her knuckles, “And stop that.  I’m serious.  Why haven’t you been walking me home? You’ve been fucking jumpy lately, too.  I thought you were going to go through the roof when I dropped a bottle yesterday.”

Joe’s eyes shifted away and his fingers plucked at the hem of his jeans, fidgety and unsure, “…It’s nothing, okay? I haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Well that’s a lie.  You always look half-awake no matter what, Coffee Stain,” she was happy to inform him.

He tried to change the topic, shifting it, “You ever find out what was making your apartment smell?”

Sue sighed, but gave over, acknowledging Joe’s superior stubbornness when it came to divulging personal information of any sort, “No.  Of course, it’s pretty hard getting maintenance in there for anything but a total emergency.”

At Joe’s curious look, she continued, “Basically, a few years ago some mega-rich guy from the central part of the city bought up a whole bunch of derelict buildings and fixed ‘em up.  He started renting them out cheap.  Said it was supposed to be affordable housing for the poor and less-fortunate.  I mean, sure, rent’s low as hell, but there aren’t really any landlords we can bring little problems to.  There's a caretaker, but he's really kind of creepy.  It’s not too bad though.  Smell went away pretty quickly.  Maybe a cat brought in a dead rat or something.”

“You said it smelled like dirt,” Joe reminded her, his eyes weirdly keen.

The bartender gave him a weird look, “Yes, but city air does weird things to smells, doesn’t it?”

“…I guess,” Joe replied, plucking at the hems of his trousers again, “What was the rich guy’s name?”

“I dunno, does it even matter? Anyway, some of those guys at the corner table are eyeing up the bar again and we’re almost out of PBR.  Go get some out of the back,” She was tugging Joe up with unforgiving hands and it looked like work was heading back to full tilt.

The wiry young man nodded sharply and started to dash into the supply room before she called back, “And you ARE walking me home tonight.  If you don’t, I’ll tell Jonah you let one of these creeps touch me.”

“He won’t believe you,” Joe tried to protest even though they both knew she was getting her way.

Giving a nervous sigh, he disappeared into the back.  They still had a long night ahead of him which meant he had plenty of time to think about the walk…and plenty of time to dread it.

~~~

The door to _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ back alley exit clicked behind Joe and Sue with all the finality of a coffin nail.  They’d finally had to get the new students out at closing time and a few had just refused to go.  In the end, the police had been called and now it was nearly six in the morning.  There had been a punch or two thrown (not at them, thankfully) and so it had all turned into a bit of a mess.  The two were tired, beer-stained and somewhat irritable, but they still started on the walk back into the ghetto so Joe could get Sue home and then collapse on his own mattress in his own little warehouse and try to snatch sleep from nightmares yet again.

“Fucking lunatics,” Sue huffed, drawing her light jacket in around her.

As was customary on their nightly walks, the bartender tried gamely to draw information out of Joe, “Hey…Coffee Stain? Why don’t you ever want to tell anyone anything about yourself? I mean, I’ve noticed for a long time, but just…I dunno.  Tonight kind of reminded me.”

Joe hunched his shoulders, eyes straight ahead, “There’s nothing really interesting to say about me.”

“I don’t think THAT’S true,” she refuted.

“Why not?” Joe boggled at her.

She punched him on the arm with some affection, “Because, you idiot, people who never shut up about themselves are boring.  People who never talk are the interesting ones.”

A police siren rent the air in the distance and Joe jittered at the sudden sound, but only slightly and it calmed quickly.  It earned him an incredulous look, but he put on a look of chagrin and Sue turned away just as quickly.  There was a frisson of the unspoken between them, but they both chose to ignore it as they usually did while the gloom of the ghetto drew in deeper over them, wrapped in dreary dawn light.  They merely proceeded together in companionable silence as the sky went from pitch to dishwater as a watery, feeble sun started to rise in the east.  The light made Sue’s rundown old apartment building look emaciated and ill as they approached it, a bit of broken glass in the street crunching under Joe’s near-threadbare converse.

Now Joe had been walking Sue home for the better part of a year once she’d realized she liked him enough to tolerate and even demand his company.  He’d seen most of the people who lived in her apartment building at one point or another.  There was the old Polish woman with a bent back who shouted at him like the devil whenever she saw him, an angry looking lesbian couple who he was pretty sure were meth-dealers on the side, a frantic looking woman with an autistic son who typically had a new man in once a month (the mother, that is) and an army vet along with a few other nameless faces.  Even if he didn’t know them in particular, he knew the look of the people who occupied the building.  They were scruffy or worn down or poor or homely…never anyone particularly important.

The man standing in front of the door now was none of those things.

The man standing in front of the door was tall and sculpted with a face that couldn’t be called anything but ‘cultured’.  His hair was blonde and perfectly neat, slicked back and stylish.  His cuticles were completely clean and his hands were elegantly long, but sleekly muscled.  He carried his chin high and the whole package came wrapped in a tailored, dove-gray suit, a dark blue tie nuzzling at his long throat.  In short, he was nothing like anyone living in the apartment (or in the ghetto for that matter).

 Joe and Sue were instantly on alert, their exhaustion beaten back by ingrained wariness.

More bold than her coworker by miles, Sue spoke, “Hey, pal.  Are you lost or something?”

The man turned and fixed them both with a steely glance from eyes the colour of a stormy sea, sizing them up.  His gaze swept up both of them like consuming wildfire before his lips broke into a lazy, disarming smile.  He was apparently pleased with what he saw, though Joe couldn’t shake a feeling of apprehension.

“No, actually.  You see, I’m Mal Fitzroy.   I own this building and I’m afraid I’ve been a bit too busy to check up on it.  However, I just had some time open up in my schedule and noticed one of the maintenance reports mentioned a weird smell? What was it…”

“Dirt,” Sue supplied quickly, “…or mold, I guess.  Yeah, that was me.”

“Well, I’m glad you mentioned it.  Could be something that could cause lasting damage.  I know it’s early, but would you mind terribly pointing out where you think you found it so I can have the caretaker look it over today?” the man asked in a mild, personable tone.

“Yeah.  I’ll just be happy if this place isn’t falling down around my ears.  Come on, I’ll show you where it was,” Sue said, walking up and turning at the last minute to wave Joe off, “Go home.  Sleep.”

A sudden, tiny tension sprang into the air like a small soap bubble, “Oh? Does he not live here as well?”

Joe looked up to find those steely eyes locked on him and a tremor shot down his spine, “N-no, I don’t.  Bye Sue.”

He turned quickly to try and leave when the man’s voice rolled over him again, catching him as sure as a bear trap, “That’s very gentlemanly of you to walk a lady home.”

He knew, he KNEW if he turned and looked again, those eyes would still be watching him.  A tremble started up in his fingertips.  He couldn’t make his legs MOVE.  It was only Sue’s voice breaking the spell from behind him that saved him.

“Yeah, Joseph here is a real knight in shining armour.  Now, I’ve had a really long night so if you wouldn’t mind…?”

Joe could hear it all as the man behind him offered a soft apology before eventually, FINALLY, turning away to go inside.  It seemed like slow motion as the door clicked shut behind him and suddenly he was alone on the street, small and stinking of booze.  Even then he was rooted to the spot.  Those eyes…there was something unnerving about them.  More than that, there was something familiar about them, something that echoed down to the core of his deepest, darkest nightmares.  His stomach hardened into a ball of ice and his heart congealed to lead.

When finally he made it back to the comfort of his mattress an untold amount of time later, his black dreams had begun to take on a new form.  Here, in El Otro, where he’d run to continue his long flight, something had caught up to him.

He only wished he knew what.


	3. The Nightmare on the Doorstep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed since the start of the story. I hope I continue to create something you enjoy. Things are about to get a little bit darker and the tags have been adjusted to reflect that. You're all wonderful and thank you so much for reading!

ALTERA

CHAPTER TWO  
The Nightmare on the Doorstep

Faces loomed above him. 

He was sure they were speaking a language that he was supposed to understand, but for some reason he couldn’t make it out, just couldn’t.  He had the impression of being unbearably small, of looking up at towering figures.  So many things are happening all at once and he is aware of a great and terrible confusion…of a sort of betrayal so great and yet so simple that he can’t quite wrap his head around it.  He tries to make the figures out, but they’re as muddled as the language; something resembling human and yet not quite.  He is staring into the yawning pit of the uncanny valley when suddenly the biggest figure looks down at him.  He can tell that much because he is suddenly aware of eyes.  Eyes the colour of tempestuous waters scrutinize him so deeply he can feel it in his bones.

Then it all changes.  Then he is screaming.  He doesn’t know that he will ever stop.

~~~

Joe’s eyes shot open where he lay sprawled on his pilfered mattress, narrow chest heaving in great gulps of breath.  He licked his dry lips, but his whole mouth was like cotton and yielded nothing.  The back of his neck prickled and he couldn’t help but feel nauseous.  Slowly, the young man sat up and placed a hand to his head as though he could simply rub the remainders of the dream out of his head, easy as dusting cobwebs from a corner.  He could feel his heart hammering away, could hear it in his ears as it drowned out everything else long enough to be completely disorienting.

That same dream.

No matter how far he got from the orphanage or how long he moved, it always seemed to follow him.  It had been twelve years.  Twelve years and who knew how many hundreds of miles separated him from the awful memories…the life force that fed these nightmares.  It didn’t seem fair.  He wasn’t that little anymore and he wasn’t that boy anymore, so why did that child insist on haunting him? Still, those eyes, they had been new and they had been familiar enough to strike a chord in him.  They were the same eyes as that man, Mal Fitzroy.  The very thought made his brain lurch and he realized that he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that day.

With a grunt, Joe pushed himself up off of is mattress and wobbled over to the camp shower he’d set up in the corner of his warehouse.  It hadn’t been hard to get and it had been even easier to set up.  After all, this warehouse had been abandoned so quickly that some of the water pipes were still connected and since so little was used, the city never clocked that it was still in operation.  It was better than his previous squat where he’d had to resort to bathing in gas station bathrooms in order to look presentable.  He groomed himself quickly with the products he kept squared away in a Ziploc bag and dressed, tugging on a fresh t-shirt and jeans before going out.

As he was leaving, he picked up his faded black denim jacket, a well-worn thing with one sleeve patched over with duct tape.  It wasn’t that cold out yet, but there was a chill in his bones that he just couldn’t shake.

Joe craved the anonymity of a crowd, of being a lost face amidst a sea of people.  He slipped out of the warehouse and out of the district towards the areas where the shoppers tended to frequent.  He had a few hours to kill yet and some of his last paycheck in his pocket (the rest stashed away in the warehouse in case of emergencies), so he would huddle down in a nearby coffee shop and lose himself.  He never went to the same one twice since he couldn’t risk becoming a regular, but he knew one or two where the employee turn-over rate was high enough that nobody would ever remember his face.  He’d get a cup of something hot and let the buzz of the world drown out the memories for just a little while.

He found his way to one of the shops and slid inside, joining the line for the cashier, hands stuffed deep into his pockets.  With his shoulders drawn up protectively around his ears, he looked like everyone else and he relaxed inside just a little.  Joe allowed himself to take in his surroundings and his eyes drifted over to a small, blurry television sitting on the counter and he paused at a headline he saw jumping out in bold, scrolling text.  His eyes scanned it once, twice without really taking it in.  On the third reading, it finally sunk in:

** GRISLY HOMICIDE IN SLUM APARTMENT **

It caught him right in the stomach.  There was no reason to believe it had a single thing to do with Sue, but before he could catch himself, Joe was out of the coffee shop and headed towards the ghetto.  He hadn’t lived to twenty-five years by ignoring details and even if there was nothing to the report, there was something pulling at his gut that wouldn’t leave him alone.  He didn’t even bother to listen to the rest of the broadcast, letting the proper, bored tones of the newscaster fade into the background behind him.

~~~

It took every ounce of Joe’s self control not to run full pelt for the ghetto, heart not hammering, but fluttering instead like a small bird confused in a new cage.  He’d been rushing far too much lately, breaking one of his most solemn rules about living in the city.  It had been safer then because it was dark and there were no eyes to see, but it was nearer to noon than not now and the city was alive with people.  He slithered through throngs of them, keeping his eyes down and using his shoulders to work his way through while touching as few as possible.  It was a winding trip back into the ghettos from here and luckily the next turn would take him away from the big crowds and down some quieter side-streets.

He didn’t bother anybody and nobody bothered him.

He cleared the main streets with the ease that came from years of blending and navigating crowds and as soon as he was away from the crush of human life, he allowed himself to take up a quick jog.  His mind ran on a loop, tumbling over all the possibilities as he drew up to Sue’s apartment crumbling away in a ghetto full of buildings just like it.  He only dropped out of the jog when he saw the first police car.  He froze in place when he saw the second, the third and his heart was in his throat when he caught sight of the body.

It was there, right on the stoop of the building, not yet moved by police.  The pitiful thing might have been a man once, but only by a slim margin.  It was shredded like party streamers and oozing blood slowly onto the pavement.  Only one eye remained staring off into nowhere, the other was lost in the mauled mess of the face.  Viscera were haphazardly scattered around the body as if they’d been plucked free during the vicious digging that had opened up the torso.  A hand lay forgotten on the bottom step.  The nails weren’t black and it was a man’s hand.  Immediately, Joe felt the knot in his stomach unclench even as the nausea overtook him from just looking at the corpse that might have once been a man.

Still, even with his worst fears assuaged, he had to talk to Sue.  He looked around for any way in that wouldn’t take him past the police.  He never put any stock in their powers of vigilance, but Joe knew better than to challenge them in situations like this.  Crime scenes, however long it might take them to actually get off their asses and see to them, were police turf.  Not his.  It presented a very real problem.  He had to talk to the one person he actually bothered to call his friend, but there was no way in.

He didn’t notice anyone coming up behind him until a familiar voice was speaking into his ear, “It wouldn’t matter if you could get through anyway.  She’s giving a statement.  Quite safe though, I assure you.”

Joe tried to turn around sharply like a startled cat.  No one ever snuck up on him.  He was sure he hadn’t gotten so distracted that he’d allowed someone to get the jump on him, but he found when he tried to turn, a hand locked on his shoulder.  He was held in place and his heartbeat ratcheted up.  He dared to look to the side and on his shoulder he saw a large hand with clean nails pinning him to the spot.

The voice went on, deep and full of secrets, “Gentlemanly of you to see to her.  I do hope there’s nothing more to this than friendly concern, however.  You’ve caused quite enough carnage for one day.”

That hit Joe square in the breastbone and his dark eyes widened, he tried to turn, fighting the hand, “I didn’t do anything!”

The hand only tightened until he hissed in pain, “Be still.  I don’t like hurting you, but I will if you’re disobedient.”

Breathing heavily, but feeling the inhuman strength in those hands, Joe subsided.  To his relief, the grip loosened back to a more bearable level.  It wasn’t intended to bruise now, just to control.  He couldn’t decide which one sickened him more. 

“How dare you say this isn’t your fault, Joseph?” Mal Fitzroy’s voice sounded near to outrage now, still calm and controlled, but with a seething undertone of thinly veiled anger.

Joe looked over to the police and wondered if they would make it in time to save him if he made a scene.  He didn’t think so.  He’d felt the strength in Mal’s hand and he knew the man would probably be able to crush his windpipe before he could rally up a cry.  He was trapped just out of help’s reach by a man who was clearly mad.  Joe was confused.  He felt like he was working through a fog where everyone knew the way but him.

He couldn’t help but protest helplessly, “I don’t know what’s going on…”

The hand gentled somewhat, but Joe wasn’t fooled into thinking he’d escape as Mal replied, “…No.  No, you wouldn’t would you?”

With his eyes still on the police buzzing around the crime scene and preparing the mangled body for transport, Joe could hear the tires of a car crunching over the debris in the street.  He supposed it was just another police car until it pulled up right behind them.  He felt his blood freeze in his veins as the hand on his shoulder made a move to steer him towards that car.  He dug his heels in, trying to scrabble back and away from it.  The situation was suddenly out of his control and he had to escape.  He felt panic rising in him and he forgot that the man holding him could snap his neck as easy as breathing.  He started to hyperventilate and struggle in earnest.  He barely heard the sigh behind him.

“Forgive me for this, Joseph, but you aren't giving me a choice.”

He felt a sharp twinge, like someone had gathered all the skin on the back of his neck and squeezed it sharply.  Immediately, he felt most of his muscles to turn to jelly.  The pinching continued, however and his head began to swim.  He felt like  he was drowning for one long moment before suddenly everything went black.


	4. Reasonable

ALTERA

CHAPTER THREE  
Reasonable

Joe awoke in a room.

It wasn’t a bad room at all.  It was actually relatively nice.  The walls were painted a soothing cream that wasn’t quite yellow or white.  It caught the last rays of sunlight streaming in from a nearby window and turned the entire room warm.  Gauzy curtains filtered the light, turning it soft and hazy before it hit the thick beige carpet.  Joe realized with some relief that he was lying on a couch, the leather warm and rich brown, soft against his cheek.  He was on his stomach, one hand trailing the carpet from where it had fallen off the couch, the other tucked up under his body and asleep from the weight of him bearing down on it.  He grunted and rolled a bit, trying to free it.  The movement let him take in a little more of the room.

There were a few large pictures on the wall, but instead of paintings, they were arrangements of pressed flowers forever preserved between two glass panes and a wooden frame.  The far wall was dominated by large windows, but at the angle he was resting at, Joe couldn’t see out just yet.  The only thing he could tell was that it was late afternoon from where the sun was hanging in the sky and where the light was falling on the floor.

His brain was swimming back to him in pieces.  He remembered going to the apartment building to see Sue and he remembered the body (with some distress).  He remembered, suddenly, that Mal Fitzroy had been there, lurking for lack of a better word.  He remembered being told confusing things and the sound of a car coming.  He remembered a forceful hand that shouldn’t have been as strong as it was.  At last, the memory of fading hit his mind…of that too-strong hand holding the back of his neck in a vice.  Had he injected him with something?

Suddenly, realization slammed into Joe like a freight train.  He’d been drugged and forced into Mal’s car.  He had no idea where he was, but he knew that Mal would be here.

Gripped with panic, Joe tried to push himself up off the couch, but found his legs weren’t ready to get with the programme yet.

From behind him, he heard Mal’s voice, calm and soothing, “I wouldn’t try to stand up if I were you, Joseph.  You’re still recovering.”

The slender man groaned and collapsed back onto the couch, “What did you do to me?” He begged in a distressed voice.

“It’s nothing dangerous, just an overdose of a particular type of endorphins specific to us,” The voice reassured, coming closer as Mal walked over from wherever he had been.

“Of what?” Joe asked, his voice rising a bit in fear.

Mal was standing at the end of the couch now, “A morphine-like substance originating in the body.  You happen to have a very large release-gland for it in the base of your neck.  Technically I abused it by holding it so long, but I had to calm you down.  You were going to make a scene.  Don’t worry too much.  Your body will flush it out completely in just a little while.”

“You kidnapped me…” the younger man slurred slightly as he tried to shift away from Mal.

A firm hand shot down to grab his ankle and squeeze, warning him to stay where he was.  When Joe gave up and slumped back down into the couch, the hand softened and stroked his ankle bone instead as a sort of reward.

“In common terms, I suppose I did,” the blonde man granted, sitting down on the far arm of the couch.

Joe took a minute to take the man in.  He looked just as leonine and regal as he had yesterday in his perfect suit…just as perfectly put together and groomed.  However, instead of the suit-and-tie get up he’d been wearing, right now he was just in a pair of slacks and a button-down shirt.  He’d clearly lost the tie and the suit coat when he’d gotten Joe to wherever they were now.  Which reminded him…

“Where are we?” Joe managed to ask, watching the businessman with wary, half-lidded eyes.

“Home,” was the simple reply.

Grunting and trying to shift some of his dark curls out of his own eyes, Joe turned his head to really look at Mal.  He found those frightening blue-gray eyes pinned on him as they always seemed to be when the other man was around him.  Yesterday they’d scanned him down to the bone, earlier in the ghetto he hadn’t seen them but he could still feel their condescension and incandescent rage, yet now they seemed gentle.  It seemed like Mal was taking stock of him with that look.  It unnerved Joe and he looked away quickly.

“Your home?” he asked after a long silence between them, that hand still rubbing maddeningly at his ankle.

The other didn’t even bother to move an inch, “Used to be.  It’s ours now, though.”

It took only three seconds total for the full weight of that announcement to sink straight to Joe’s gut and he was struggling to sit up again, the hold on his ankle be damned.  Joe was not a forceful or loud man, nor was he a particularly violent one, but he could fight when he was threatened.  He certainly felt threatened now with the implications of Mal’s words settling around his bones.  He tried to kick at Mal with his other foot, wondering where the door was and if he could make it there in time once he’d shaken the other man off.

He never even got the chance.

Before he even knew what was happening, Mal loomed up over him and flipped him easily, pressing his face down into the couch and pinching at his neck a few times.  He tried to shout in protest before, just like last time, his whole body went limp.  He didn’t black out this time, though, which meant the other man had let up before he overdosed again.  However, this time Mal didn’t let up his weight and stayed with his hands pushing Joe’s shoulders down into the couch even after he’d let go of his neck.

When he spoke again, his mouth was right next to Joe’s ear, “Be.  Still.”

Joe shuddered and squeezed his eyes shut, but Mal continued, “I see you’ve not learned any sense since the last time I saw you.  Why are you not happy I found you again? Why are you not pleased I have made something of myself so that I could give you a nice home?”

“I don’t know you!” Joe groaned desperately from where he was pinned beneath the other man.

A tense pause filled the air and Joe felt his nerves fraying thin.

“No, you wouldn’t know this face, would you? The first time we met, I insisted that you only be allowed to see my true face.  Your parents never taught you a damn thing about what it meant to be one of us and I refused to meet my future mate in a borrowed human’s skin.  Oh, how you cried.  I still hate your parents for that…for turning me into the monster under the bed in your eyes,” Mal practically spat.

He got up off of Joe and paced away while the younger man did his level best to curl himself into a ball at the end of the couch, afraid of the sudden anger he felt.  He watched as the large man paced around the room a little, casting looks back at him from time to time.  Joe was slowly becoming aware of a smell in the air.  It hadn’t been there before but he noticed it now.  It smelled slightly moist and rich, like overturned dead leaves on a forest floor.  It smelled like dirt and everything clicked in his head.  He let out a low moan of terror.  Those eyes, that smell and everything that Mal was saying…it all made sense and the monster from his childhood at the orphanage had found him again.  He was trapped with it.

“You.  It was you,” he whispered.

Mal Fitzroy turned swiftly to face him, “Yes.  It was me, but you never knew because your parents had buried your nature so deep inside of you.”

“And at the apartment…Sue…the smell,” he stammered.

The taller man held up one hand, “That wasn’t me.  That was another.  He must have come into town and picked up your scent from all the times you brought Sue home and he was just sniffing around for you.  That’s why I went over so quickly when I got the maintenance report about the smell.”

The facts fell into place again, “You killed him, didn’t you?”

“You don’t know what he would have done to you,” Mal shot back, scowling.

“What are YOU going to do to me?” Joe asked, gaining back a bit of his courage.

Mal looked at him and really seemed to study him again.  With a sigh, he sat down heavily in the armchair that was situated not too far away from the couch.  He looked Joe up and down and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth, seeming to deflate as his anger drained out of him.  Instead he just looked a little defeated now, still proud and noble, but defeated and more than a little frustrated.  His lips were a thin, iron-hard line behind his hands.  He was thinking deeply and Joe would have given most anything if he could know what was going on in the monster’s brain.

Finally a much calmer Mal broke the silence between them, “It pains me how little you know of your own people.  Had you been raised properly…had you not run away you would not see this as a terrible burden or something to fear.  I have no desire to hurt you, Joseph.”

“But you will if I’m…disobedient,” Joe echoed his earlier words back at him bitterly.

Mal breathed out heavily through his nose and tried for patience again, “If I speak, will you listen? If I tell you everything, will you be quiet and accept what I am telling you?”

“I don’t have to accept anything.  Not from you.  I’m going home,” Joe shot back without thinking.  All he knew was that the monster of his childhood nightmares was sitting in front of him and he seemed reasonable enough to listen to him.  Perhaps he would even leave if asked...the monster from his nightmares gone at long last.  Who was he to pass up that freedom if it came his way?

He should have known better than to trust a monster to be reasonable.

When he rose on shaky legs to try and find the door, Mal was up like a shot, grabbing his bicep and squeezing.  He wasn’t yelling or raging or shouting, but there was a free-burning fire in his eyes now and he was clearly not supportive of the brunette's departure.  Once again making use of that unbelievable strength, the tall, blonde man began to pull Joe across the carpet and towards a hallway. 

His voice was like ice trickling down his captive’s spine when he spoke through gritted teeth, “Do not mistake my kindness for a choice, Joseph Lorcan.  If you will not be reasonable, you will be a prisoner.”

Forced down the hallway, Joe saw a door looming up in front of him.  He was forced closer and closer to it before Mal reached over his shoulder and ripped the door open.  Without ceremony, the young prisoner was shoved in and the door was slammed shut behind him.  He could hear the click of a key turning in a lock before he threw himself at the solid wood blocking him from freedom, banging on it and trying the handle desperately.  He was an inmate now.  To his horror, he realized that the room he found himself in had no windows.  Not only could he not escape, but he couldn’t even see the sky.  His only light came from a lamp beside the bed.

Mal spoke one final time from the other side of the door, “As long as you insist on being blind, you will remain in that room.  I will come to deliver you food and water in the mornings and at night.  There is a bathroom attached to the room, so you can meet your own needs there.”

There was a pause and Joe felt his heart sinking.  His legs went out from under him and he leaned against the door, sitting on the carpet.

“…I can be very cruel, Joseph, or I can be kind.  You will decide which way you would rather have me.  The choice is yours.  Good night.”

As Mal Fitzroy’s footsteps faded away down the hall, Joe allowed himself despair.


	5. Neither Light nor Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for reading and for all the lovely comments. Through Sunday there will be frequent updates, though I can't promise they'll continue daily once I start rehearsals on Monday. I will still endeavor to put up at least one chapter a day (though failing that, we'll try for one every other day). Thank you for reading!

ALTERA

CHAPTER FOUR  
Neither Light nor Time

Mal was true to his word. 

The first night had been horrible.  Joe couldn’t stop pacing from wall to wall with nothing to distract his troubled thoughts.  His brain ran in frantic circles.  At first he was sure that Sue and Jonah would realize he’d not been in for work and come looking for him.  Then he realized that, due to his own paranoia and care, neither of them knew where he lived and Sue had never seen him at her apartment earlier in the day.  Nobody had seen him taken.  It was a big city and that meant nobody asked questions and nobody cared.  Nobody cared at all.  Of course it had been a boon once, this general apathy, but now it had proven a terrifying handicap.  Nobody had cared enough to know Joe existed and he’d kept the people who did from finding him.  Mal might have thrown him into this cell, but he’d practically built it with his own two hands.

The big man was too strong for Joe to try and overpower him when food was brought and he knew that, so that idea was quickly abandoned.  There were no windows anywhere in his room or bathroom, so there was no escape from that avenue either.  He’d even tried to find a little door in the ceiling that sometimes hinted at an attic, but his roof was smooth and unblemished.  There wasn’t even anything he could use to pick the locks.  His prison had been thoughtfully designed.

Exhausted and fitful, Joe laid down on the bed in the middle of the room, pressing his narrow frame down into the blankets as if he could hide.  At least Mal didn’t seem to want to kill him.  At least not yet, anyway.  He rolled onto his back and looked around the room.  There was no clock and so no way to tell the passing of hours.  There were no books to read, no television or radio.  It seemed like the only thing he could control in this little room was when the lamp was turned on or off.  Joe was used to surviving on little and so he tried to tell himself that he wasn’t bothered, but he still felt the creeping tendrils of anxiety worming their way into his belly.

Perhaps if he showed Mal how unbothered he was by the situation when he came to deliver his food that night, the other would relent and let him out.  After all, there was no point to a prison if the inmate wasn’t being punished, right?

Only…Mal didn’t return that night.

At first, Joe waited for a long time, but already time had become a strange concept.  Tension made minutes feel like hours so much that he couldn’t actually tell when the hours actually passed.  However, after a point he was forced to realize that he wasn’t getting fed that night.  He could live without food.  He’d done it before for longer periods of time.  The bad part was that he had been counting on it as a way of gauging the time.  Now he had nothing.  Letting out a whine of frustration, Joe rolled over and tried to sleep.  It was the only thing he could do.

~~~

He woke up the next morning from a restless sleep when the soft click of the lock echoed through his room.  Mal walked in holding a tray, dressed as neatly as ever with the smell of a fresh shower hanging in the air around him.  Joe sat up quickly, blinking stupidly as Mal set the tray down on the dresser across from the bed and turned to look at him, face unreadable.

“Are you ready to talk today?” he asked in an authoritative tone.

Joe stayed where he was and said nothing, not willing to trust yet or to surrender.  It only evoked a heavy sigh from the other man before he turned to leave.

“I’ll be back later, then,” Mal said coolly.

The door snapped shut behind him and silence descended on the room again.  Joe looked over at the breakfast that had been left for him, but didn’t bother going over to it.  He wasn’t willing to trust what he was given, not from the hands of a murderer, stalker and kidnapper, no. 

Feeling the ache of depression starting, Joe put his curly head back down on the pillow and curled around it, trying to rest.

~~~

Joe was curled up with his knees at his chest and his chin on his knees when Mal appeared again.  He’d completely given up on trying to figure out the time, no idea if the other man was even telling the truth about only coming in at breakfast and dinner times.  He watched the big man curl his nose a little at finding the food untouched.

He picked up the tray briskly, “I hadn’t taken you for the wasteful sort, Joseph.”

“Didn’t know what you’d done to it,” Joe retorted, watching Mal from underneath dark chestnut brows.

For a moment Mal was quiet before he came to a decision, “Well, if you can’t trust me, you can find your own food then and I’ll save my groceries for awhile.  You’ll get your water from the bathroom sink.”

Before the implications of his words had time to sink in fully, he had disappeared back out the door and locked it behind him.

~~~

His prisoner didn’t realize the mistake he’d actually made until much, much later when the rumbling in his stomach picked up to a gnawing pain from just a low-grade burn.  He didn’t realize how angry he’d made Mal either until the lamp disappeared from his room while he was sleeping.  Suddenly he was without food or a light source since the switch in the bathroom didn’t seem to be working.  It made the room seem that much smaller without the light to define its boundaries.  He was claustrophobic and hungry now, all because he’d made Mal unhappy.

At first he convinced himself that it was alright and he’d been in worse places, but his first trip to the bathroom in the pitch blackness shook his confidence.  He’d had to hobble there, hands out in front of him to avoid running into a doorframe or the dresser.  Even then it took another ten minutes to find the sink.  He felt blind and helpless and lost.  After getting his water, he simply sat down on the bathroom floor and it took him far too long to get his courage back up to try finding his way back to the bed.  He didn’t want to admit it, but he was shaken.  He knew he was being toyed with.  He knew that Mal was conditioning him, but it didn’t change how he felt. 

He didn’t even know how many days had passed before Mal returned.  All he knew was that he was starving and that the paranoia had grown in nearly crushing waves until he was left in a curled, huddled ball on the bed.  It was only then that he heard the click of his door and saw the tall man’s shadow framed in the near-blinding light from the doorway.  He shielded his eyes and Mal made a soft sound, walking over to cover his eyes with a hand soothingly.  He set some items down on the bed covered Joe’s head with a blanket before walking out of the room and doing something.  When he returned, the lamp was back and working and his prisoner was slowly adjusting to the light.

Mal settled himself on the bed and held out one of the items he’d brought; an individually wrapped granola bar.  It was a concession on his part, giving Joe food that he couldn’t have tampered with and the younger man found he was too hungry to fight.  He took it and tore into it, eating quietly while his captor watched, stopping him every once in awhile to make sure he didn’t choke.  When he finished one bar, he was handed another and they repeated the process.  Once he’d eaten three, Mal disappeared and returned with a cup of water, making sure he drank.

When he spoke this time, Mal used a more gentle tone, “Are you ready to talk yet, Joseph?”

Joe watched him warily, pupils still blown as they tried to take in light, “…If I let you talk, can I come out of this room?”

Almost sadly, Mal shook his head ‘no’, “I’m afraid you’re not ready to come out yet.”

“Then why should I listen?” Joe asked almost angrily.

“Do you want to be in the dark again?” Mal’s voice was sharp like a reprimand and it silenced the younger man for several minutes.

When he dared speak again, it was tentative, “…Can I have a radio? Or a clock?”

The blonde man seemed to consider it before nodding, his eyes softening, “If you’ll talk to me, I’ll give you a radio for the room until you’re ready to come out.”

Joe conceded far more quickly than he wanted to admit, “Okay.  We’ll talk.”

At least his answer seemed to please Mal and it eased the worry in him when those stormy eyes brightened a little and the sharp line of his broad shoulders relaxed.

“Where do you want to start then, Joseph?” the big man asked gently.

Joe thought over that, running his hands over and over on the fabric of his jeans before he asked, “Why am I here, really?”

“Because you’re my mate,” was the almost tender reply.

Swallowing thickly, the captive absorbed that information, not admitting how much it scared him.  After all, Mal was being kind to him right now, so he needed to stay calm.  He didn’t want any more anger.  He wasn’t sure he could stand another hungry, lonely period in the absolute darkness.

With Mal watching him intently, he asked another question, “What does that mean?”

“It means,” the other explained with the utmost patience, “that your grandparents promised you to me when you were very young.  When they died, your parents tried to break the bargain by running away with you, but they were killed in a car crash.  Do you remember that?”

Of course Joe remembered that.  He’d been eight at the time and it had been the first moment in his young life when he’d known what terror was.  He remembered the screech of steel, the slash of rain against the windshield, the squeal of tires and the heavy impact that had nearly sent him sprawling out of his seatbelt.  He remembered how very still his parents had been and how he had KNOWN they were dead.  He remembered the wail of sirens and the strangers all around him and absolutely nobody telling him what was going on.  There had been a parade of strangers every day until at last he had been settled in an orphanage with a kindly old man watching over him so close.  He’d been there until he was thirteen…and then there had been the terrible night and he’d started running the very next day.

“…Yes,” he whispered.

“The old man who watched the orphanage was a friend of your grandparents.  When we found out what had happened we pulled strings to have you put with him so that he could watch over you until you were old enough to meet me and start learning,” Mal went on.

“So…an arranged marriage, then? Those still happen?” he asked, getting some of his strength back now that he had the food in his system and the light for comfort.

Mal nodded sagely, “Among our people they do.  We are very few these days and when an Omega is born, they are always paired with an Alpha by their family to ensure that they are safe and prosperous.”

“You lost me again,” Joe said, brow furrowing in confusion.

“I thought I might.  Your parents were incredibly lax in teaching out about your people, Joseph.  They were from a peculiar sect of our people who feel that the best way to blend with humans is to forget that they were ever anything else.  It’s a foolish way to behave, especially when it raises confused children like you,” his captor said with annoyance, though thankfully not at him.

He didn’t give Joe a chance to respond, instead going on, “You’ve grown up your whole life thinking you were a human who had seen a monster.  It’s so far from the truth, Joseph, so very far.  You are the same as me.  You’re an Alteran and a very special one at that.  It is upsetting to know you’ve never worn your true face.”

“What are you talking about? This is my real face,” the younger man said, his insides starting to curl in rejection and fear again.

Mal noticed his growing revulsion to the topic and he gave him a smile full of regret, “Perhaps we’ll talk again in a few days.”

“No! Wait! I’m sorry! Don’t turn off the lights again!” Joe begged, thinking that the other was going to punish him again.

His blonde captor held out a hand to calm him, “Shhh, it’s alright.  The lights are going to stay on and I’ll bring you a radio.  You’re just not ready for the rest yet.”

Joe licked his lips and sunk back into the bed a little as Mal gathered up the trash from the granola bars and said, “I’ll be back with some things later.  Get some sleep.”

When the other man left this time, he wasn’t angry, but Joe hated the click of the lock all the same.


	6. Educating Joseph

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never dreamed my little impulse-story would have so much lovely support so quickly. I'm chuffed as hell that you're finding enjoyment in it! I'll continue to try for at least one update a day and I'll try to answer all questions as soon as I can. Happy Reading!

ALTERA

CHAPTER FIVE  
Educating Joseph

After trying to get some sleep, Joe had found himself in front of the mirror in his bathroom the next day.  He studied his face, pushed and prodded at the muscles there, trying to make them look at all like the beast from the orphanage.  Mal had said that he and Joe were the same, but the younger captive just couldn’t believe him.  He pulled up his lip to look at his teeth, looked deeply into his eyes in the mirror and just…no.  There was nothing about him that didn’t look absolutely human.  He didn’t think Mal was lying though.  He had spoken with such utter conviction and Joe remembered, he REMEMBERED what he had seen so clearly.  Monsters existed and one lurked under his captor’s skin, but he couldn’t figure out how on earth one lived under his own.

He was looking at the mirror the next morning when Mal arrived with breakfast (the radio had been delivered in the night and hooked up, so at least Joe had a steady idea of time again). 

The young man nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his jailer’s voice behind him, “I see you’ve been thinking about what I said.”

Joe turned swiftly, not recalling his bare-chested state as he faced Mal.  He had just gotten out of a shower so his curls were slicked back smooth against his skull and he was only wearing his jeans.  He dropped into a defensive position from surprise and Mal observed him, one eyebrow kicking up.

“Well, at least you can defend yourself against humans.  Come along now, calm down and come eat breakfast,” Mal said and disappeared from the doorway, still talking, “You have more muscle than I thought you did, too.  That’s good.  You’ve been taking care of yourself.”

A little embarrassed, Joe jerked a shirt on from where he’d left it on the back of the toilet before padding out into the main room of his cell again, picking up his breakfast tray and going to his bed.  He’d learned better than to refuse food and this didn’t look like there was too much risk.  It was just oatmeal and a grapefruit.  He picked up a small spoon and started in on the oatmeal, keeping one eye on Mal who seemed pleased with his progress this morning.  Joe swallowed a bite of his food and toyed with the spoon, catching the big man’s reflection in its curve.

“You used a weird word last night.  What was it?” Joe asked, looking straight up at Mal.

The man considered him for a minute, took in his freshly-showered appearance.  He clucked a little when he noticed a scar across the bridge of Joe’s nose, leaning forward to thumb at it.  When Joe jerked back, he held up his hands and relented, leaning back against the wall.

“Alteran?” Mal supplied.

“Yeah, that,” Joe let his breakfast be forgotten momentarily.  He’d eat more later, “You said I was one.”

“Because you are.  As were your mother and father and their mothers and fathers before them, et cetera,” the bigger man looked pleased that Joe was willing to discuss it.

“Okay, fine, but what is it? I’ve never done anything that didn’t seem human and I’ve always looked human,” he asked Mal and that seemed to be the right thing to do.  The other man wasn’t in the rush to leave today like he usually was.

The blonde man took a moment to choose his answer carefully before he replied, “Many traits of the Altera can only manifest when you choose to let them.  If you don’t know they’re there, you cannot use them voluntarily.  Other traits only activate when you’re around other Alterans.  For instance, your unique scent as an Omega Alteran only becomes apparent when you’re stressed or excited or when you’ve been around an Alpha long enough for your body to know to produce it.”

Joe startled and sniffed at his wrist, “Am I doing it now?”

“Faintly, yes,” Mal nodded.

“So I smell like dirt?”

“Musk and no, Joseph.  That scent is unique only to Alpha Alterans.  It only smells like dirt to humans because their senses aren’t attuned enough to pick up the subtler nuances of the scent.  It smells like dirt to you because you spend so much time in your human form that it’s blunted your senses completely,” he sounded disappointed again at that.

Joe heard the note of frustration and tried another tactic so he wouldn’t go away just yet, “And what do I smell like then?”

He still didn’t quite believe he was one of those monsters, but if humouring Mal got him better treatment, he’d do it for the time being.

Mal’s nostrils flared as he lifted his nose into the air, sampling the scent before saying, “Putting it into terms that you would understand? Cinnamon.  It says more to me of course, but that’s the only way I can describe it to you at the moment.”

“Well, what else does it tell you?” Joe pressed, scared of what this mysterious scent might have told the other Alteran who had apparently been stalking him before his violent demise.

His captor paused and looked him over.  He took a few steps forward while Joe watched him warily before reaching out for one freckled shoulder, half bared under the wife-beater Joe had taken to wearing.  On instinct, the smaller man flinched back and his eyes narrowed before Mal’s hand even reached him and the Alpha shook his head with another one of those damned rueful smiles that meant he was leaving.  He retracted his hand and put it back into his pocket.

“You’re not ready for that yet, I’m afraid.  Now, eat your breakfast.  I’ll be back tonight,” he bowed his blonde head with something like respect and left, locking the door behind him again.

~~~

The days fell into a routine after that.  Joe woke up in the mornings and showered, then got out just in time for Mal to bring in his breakfast.  Lately they’d been quiet while he ate ever since the failed attempt at touch, but he was alone a little bit less.  The rest of the day became more bearable when he had the radio to listen to and then at night Mal would bring him his dinner and then leave.  Sometimes things were different, like the day Mal decided that Joe had been wearing the same clothes quite long enough and brought him some fresh things.  They weren’t his clothes from the warehouse, so he supposed Mal still hadn’t found that.  At least he’d have a hideaway if he ever escaped here.

The only problem became loneliness.

From listening to the radio, Joe knew that he had been locked up in that room for something like two weeks now.  He hadn’t been to his job or seen Sue in two weeks.  Normally he was fine with isolation, sought it even, but only when it was his choice.  For a year his routine had been working and seeing Sue but now he had probably lost his job and she had probably forgotten about him, dismissing him as a slacker.  Something about that made him feel desolate inside. 

Mal was an ever-present force in his life now, but only for a few minutes every morning and evening.  Sometimes Joe could hear him moving around in the house beyond his door on days when he didn’t have to go into his office and the younger man could feel this strange magnetic pull and it hurt just a little bit when he knew he couldn’t obey it.  He just wanted company that’s all.  A year with company he actually enjoyed had spoiled him and made it that much harder for him to be alone.

Joe had even taken to exercising in his room to take his mind off of the forced solitude.  The rush of adrenaline cleared his head, but only for so long.  He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out without at least seeing the sky.

~~~

The breaking point came two days later when Joe woke up to the low hum of his radio.  The DJ on the station he’d tuned into was one of those constantly ebullient, loud people who always spoke like he was advertising a new car.  He was the kind of person who could make anything sound exciting.  This morning when Joe opened his eyes, he was talking about how particularly lovely the sunrise over the city was this morning and the prisoner felt a tug of ‘want’ hard at his heart.  He was tired of not seeing the sky.  He wanted to see this sunrise that the loud DJ made sound like the most amazing one in human history.

Perhaps that was why when Mal came in with his breakfast tray to see him he was just sitting on his bed.  He hadn’t showered, as was his routine.  He was just sitting there, hands on his lap, curls mussed from sleeping and his pajama pants wrinkled.

Before the other man could open his mouth to comment on the change of pace, Joe blurted out, “Please can I come out?”

He had to say it before he lost his courage and when he saw Mal’s face screwing up in the apologetic grimace that always preceded a 'no' he knew he had to keep trying. 

“Please? It doesn’t have to be for the whole day.  It doesn’t.  I just…I just want to see what’s left of the sunrise.  I want to see the sun.  Please let me see the sun,” Joe barreled on for fear of losing his chance.

Mal slowly walked out of the room and there was a click as he set the breakfast tray down somewhere.  Joe nearly panicked afresh.  Oh god.  Oh god, no.  He’d pissed him off again and now he was going to be trapped in the dark with no radio or company or food and he was going to go crazy again.  He started breathing harder when he realized that he was about to be punished again, only for a surprised Mal to walk back in on him, dashing over almost immediately to hold the younger man’s shoulders.

“Calm down, Joseph! It’s alright,” he tried to soothe.

“I didn’t mean to make you angry! I’m sorry, please don’t leave me in the dark again!” Joe begged, hoping for mercy.

For a moment Mal stared at him before bursting into soft chuckles, “Joseph, it’s alright, shhhh.  I wasn’t taking it away.  I just took it out where you could eat it while you’re in the living room.”

With his hands still on Joe’s shoulders, Mal guided him up and out of the room where he’d spent over two weeks of his life in solitude.  He led him back down the carpeted hallway and into the lovely, cream-and-brown living room that he’d originally woken up in.  All the curtains of what he’d thought of as the window-wall were drawn so that the outside world was visible.  For the first time, Joe could see that they were in an apartment high above the city itself.  More than that, however, was the sunrise.

Carefully, Joe pulled away from the bigger man and walked barefoot over the thick carpet to sit in the armchair where Mal had addressed him on the very first day.  He settled in and watched the sky, all electric pink and scarlet and orange and yellow as the sun slowly ascended over the city.  He used to like sunrises when he was awake for them on his travels.  He’d never quite realized just how much he appreciated a view of the sky until he didn’t have it anymore.  He was still and silent, just watching the world go by outside of the glass. 

He almost started when Mal settled onto the couch near him and said, “Why don’t we try you staying out with me today? Hm?”

Joe turned from the view of the outside, immediately suspicious as he watched Mal, “What do you want for it? What do I have to do?”

For a mere second, the bigger man looked wounded, his brow pinching before it all smoothed out, “I won’t always want something from you, Joseph.  Making you happy is what I really want.  You’re my Omega.  I want to care for you.”

When Joe could only watch him in confusion, Mal sighed and stood up, going over to fetch where he’d left breakfast and bringing it over so they could both eat.  Today it was oatmeal and a grapefruit again, but that was enough.  Joe didn’t really feel like he needed more.  Taking it as the peace offering it was, he reached for his portion and a spoon, starting with the grapefruit today instead.  It seemed like the big, blonde Alpha had more he wanted to say, so the younger man was content to eat and let him say it without pressure.

Mal picked up a mug of coffee and took a sip before going on, “I know your arrival in this house wasn’t pleasant and I wish it could have been different.  I haven’t wanted to sequester you away.  I've ached for you by my side where you rightfully belong, but can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have run again if I’d just left you free before you understood?”

When the curly-haired Omega was silent, he took it as a ‘no’ and continued, “I just can’t lose you again.  You’re mine and without you I’m just…” he made a frustrated motion, “Everything I’ve done has been in anticipation of you.  If I have to be a little harsh to make you see that, then I will.”

The blond Alpha chuckled a little bitterly and said, in a tone most self-effacing, “I am cruel only to be kind.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Joe told him from where he sat in his chair, neat, dark brows pulled downwards in confusion.

Mal looked as if he wanted to kiss them.

“Really? It’s Hamlet.  You know…?” the older man looked at Joe with bafflement.

Joe just shook his head and Mal looked absolutely stricken before standing quickly, breakfast forgotten, and padding over to the large entertainment center that sat cozied up to the wall in front of the couch.  He rummaged through a collection of DVDs stored away in a glass-front cabinet before pulling one from the back with a sound of triumph.  His prisoner watched avidly, marking his every move and wondering at his plans.  Suddenly he found the case pushed in front of his nose touting the name “Hamlet” and “Kenneth Branagh” in bold font.

“What?” he asked in a baffled voice, eyes gone wide as he looked up at Mal.

The other man sounded insufferably pleased with himself, “This is what we’re doing today.  We’re fixing your woefully lacking education.  You’ll like it.  I promise.”

He bustled over to the entertainment center and slipped the DVD into a plastic tray, turning things on and adjusting channels.  There wasn’t any talk of putting Joe back into his dim little artificially-lit room.  There wasn’t any talk of Alterans or Humans or Alphas or Omegas.   As the film started to roll, Joe could, if grudgingly, admit that if this was the way the day was going to go, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. He caught a little whiff of Mal’s strange, earthy scent and felt it drip down his spine, loosening muscles against his will. 

Nestled in the big, overstuffed leather chair with the sunlight cascading over his hair and the low hum of electronics filling the room, Joe forgot for just a moment that he was a prisoner.

He didn’t even catch the traitorous thought before it had begun to make a home in his heart.


	7. Such a Dull House

ALTERA

CHAPTER 6  
Such a Dull House

In the end, Joe couldn’t say whether or not he liked Hamlet.  There’d been an awful lot of talking at first and he hadn’t quite understood the language.  He’d asked Mal if it was supposed to be a fantasy or something, but he’d only laughed and shushed him.  Things had gotten a little better when some guy called Polonius had died, but then it was back to talking.  Joe wasn’t even sure when he’d drifted off, but next thing he knew, Mal was shaking him awake in the leather chair where he’d apparently decided to sleep through the film.  Large, errant fingers brushed a dark curl or two from his forehead and he opened one eye blearily, then the other, to look up at the Alpha’s smirking face.

“Well, you slept through most of it, but what did you think?” the blonde man tried, blue eyes twinkling with amusement.

Muddled from his nap, Joe sat there and pondered for a minute or two before saying, disgruntled, “Weird.  He was fucking his sister.”

“Language,” the other man scolded without much heat, “and I suppose Hamlet might have been a bit much for your first try with Shakespeare.  Ah well.”

Mal moved away from the chair and fussed around the entertainment system, putting away the DVD and putting everything back where it belonged. 

While he worked, he called out, “What do you want to watch next, Joseph? I have some more Shakespeare, a few Austens…”

“Can we just watch the news?” Joe asked, thumbing over the scar on his nose.

He got a perplexed look for his request, “The news? I wouldn’t have thought you liked the news.”

“I don’t like it, really.  Just good to know what’s going on.  S’how I know where’s safe to go,” Joe shrugged up one of his shoulders nonchalantly.

“You don’t need the news anymore if that’s all you use it for,” Mal replied flatly, his soothing baritone gone stale with reproach.

The Omega, if that was what he really was, looked confused and gazed up at Mal with his eyebrows pinched together, “I don’t understand.”

“If all you use the news for is to know where you can run to, you don’t need it anymore.  You’re with me now.  Anywhere I go is safe for you to go.  If ever you need to go anywhere alone, I will TELL you where is safe to go,” he sounded almost bitter when he spoke, foiled by Joe’s apparent inability to come around.

Silence descended over them, tense at first.  Joe pulled his slender body a little tighter in on itself as he watched Mal, watched the storm clouds journey across his face.  He looked for any sign that he was about to be thrown back into the room.  Mal watched him in return, scanned his lightly-freckled, worried little face for any sort of comprehension.  He watched as only confusion danced through the dark, dark eyes he loved so well and he gave up his scrutiny with a sigh.  He smelled the spike of ‘cinnamon’ in the room (and oh, it told him so many things) and held out a soothing hand.

“What’s wrong, Joseph?” He asked in a reasonable tone.

“…I know I’ve made you mad and I don’t want to go back into the room,” the other ventured after a moment.

Mal stiffened and ran a hand over his face, shoulders slumping after a moment.  His proud face looked tired and he beckoned Joe over with one hand.  Showing some sensitivity to the situation, he didn’t force the other to sit next to him on the couch when his Omega finally did choose to come over.  Instead, he sat him on the coffee table across from the couch so they could look one another in the eye.  He’d hoped this could just be a relaxing day, but apparently there was still more to clear from the air before they could properly let their guard down around each other.  Once the other was seated, he leaned forward and bracketed him, resting his hands on either side of Joe’s hips so they could really look at each other.  Mal was also hoping that some tiny part of the Omega’s brain was learning to read scents and that their closeness could communicate just as deeply as their words.

“I hadn’t meant for this, you know.  I hadn’t intended for you to become a frightened child around me, always fearing punishment,” the unhappiness in Mal’s stern voice was palpable.

“But you DO punish me,” Joe replied, not willing to let him off the hook so easily.

“I know!” Mal bit out sharply, watching Joe wince at his tone and volume.  He took a deep breath and tried again, “Joseph, none of this is how I wanted it to be.  I expected to have you from the moment you came of age and we would have already had years to get to know one another.  We would have had more TIME…”

Here Joe’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, “I’m only twenty-five and you don’t look so old.  Why don’t we have time?”

“Oh Joseph, we have all the time in the world together, but time grows short for…other things,” Mal replied, hedging.

“What other things?” the drifter pressed, leaning back from him slightly.

“It would have been so much easier for you before.  I would have had time to help you understand before.  You would have been younger and your body not ready yet,” the older man studied Joe’s face intently, one of his big hands twitching like he wanted to touch.

“Please.  Please, just tell me what you’re talking about,” the other ventured in something like fear.

Mal’s eyes grew a little less misty and maudlin, snapping into a razor-edged focus.  He looked as though he were trying to clear the haze of want from his brain, his eyes flicking here and there over the younger man’s face before he drew back a bit.  He cleared his throat and sat up straight, trying to look respectful.

“I can’t spare you this forever, so here’s the truth.  There’s more to being Alpha and Omega Alterans than just mating and scenting and all that.”

“What else is there?” Joe asked warily.

“Breeding.  Alphas and Omegas exist in our species, not only as perfect bonded pairs, but also to improve the probability of offspring.  There are all matter of fail-safes and checks in place in our biology to give us the best chances.  One of these is called Heat.  Do you know what that is, Joseph?” Mal’s voice was unwavering now.  He’d started on this, he wasn’t going to stop and Joseph was going to listen.

When the other man frowned and shook his head, Mal explained, “When an Alteran Omega comes of age, they have the potential for a heat.  It will not automatically happen once you are old enough.  That would be dangerous and wasteful.  It only happens when an Omega has been in the presence of the same Alpha for a long enough period of time.  It is your body’s way of assuming that you have chosen a mate.  It’s a complex combination of changing body chemistry, scent triggering and so forth.”

Mal thinned his lips and looked carefully at Joe who was watching him with eyes as wide as saucers, “In the most basic, brutal terms, Joseph, you will want to have sex.  Your body will enter a fertile state and you will feel compelled to take advantage of that.”

Joe chocked and scrambled up out of his seat, “No.  No, I don’t want that.  I don’t want that at all.”

When the other man looked at him, it was with a look both absolute assured and only slightly tinged with regret, “You will.”

“No! No I would never…” the younger man ran a frantic hand through his hair until he noticed Mal getting up as if to come to him, “No! You stay away from me!”

The snarled words seemed to stop the blonde man in his tracks and Joe, seeking safety, ran back towards his room.  He’d hated being locked in that room before…he despised it, yet now it seemed like the only safe-haven.  If it could keep him away from this maniac who had him prisoner, he’d gladly stay locked in there until he could think of a better way to escape.  He would.  He ran all the way to his room and then further into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him and leaning all his weight against it.    He shuddered when he heard soft footsteps approaching the door.

In a desperate temper he yelled out, “Get away from me! If that stupid Heat thing only happens because you’re near me, then I never want you near me again! Go away! I’ll stay in this room for the rest of my life if I have to, you fucking monster!”

There was a pause outside the door and then the feet went away.

He didn’t hear the door click shut behind them.

~~~

Joe didn’t surface again until he didn’t even know when.  He hadn’t turned on his radio when he’d run back into the bathroom.  He’d heard a bit of activity from elsewhere in the house, but it didn’t seem to be a good indicator of what time it was or even what was going on.  He just stayed hidden there against the door.  He’d fallen asleep there after his heart had calmed down enough to realize he wasn’t going to be dragged out by his hair and now he was waking up, back stiff and neck sore.  He nearly jumped straight out of his skin when he heard a light knock on the door behind him.

“Go AWAY, Mal!” he shouted on impulse, trying to push himself back harder against the door.

“He already has, dear,” came a woman’s voice from the other side of the door.

Fear pinched at Joe, “…Then who are you?”

“Easy, darling.  I’m not a burglar or a rapist if that’s what you’re worried about.  Mal asked me to come and check on you, so if you’d just be a dear and come out?” The voice, a smoky English alto, replied.

Stomach swooping with unease, he called out again, “Where’s Mal?”

“From what he told me, pet, it didn’t seem like you cared to know.  However, if you must know, he left for a business trip to San Francisco late last night,” the voice sounded one part chiding and one part unconcerned.

Finally Joe opened the door just a crack to look out at the woman.  She was tall, almost as tall as Mal, and curvaceous in a way that filled out the black sweater and high-waisted trousers she was wearing.  Her hair was a sort of sun-catcher blonde many shades lighter than Mal’s, cut short, falling in bouncy, soft curls around her chin.  Her lips and nails were painted ruby red and she had the air of the perpetually ‘un-bothered’.

“So, do I pass muster, darling?” she asked with a smirk.

“What?” the young man asked in confusion.

The woman gave him an indulgent smile, “Don’t worry about it.  Basically, you and I will be sharing this lovely little apartment together until dear Mal deigns to return.  I do hope you decide to keep me company.  That man keeps SUCH a dull house.”

She turned on her heel and started walking back towards the living room, calling back, “The name is Anthea Prescott, by the way.  I DO prefer to be called Annie, however. Now come into the living room and let me have a look at you. There has GOT to be a reason that silly Alpha is all tied in knots over you, if you’ll pardon the pun.”

Filled with dread at hearing the phrase ‘alpha’ from her mouth, Joe followed behind on cat-quiet feet, standing at the entrance of the hallway and watching her carefully, “You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

“Alteran? Yes. However, luckily for me, I am a Beta, dear.  It means I’m free of all these silly amateur dramatics you Alphas and Omegas insist on putting on instead of just dating like a normal person,” Annie huffed and waved a hand dismissively.

Joe was reminded of Sue sharply and suddenly.  Looking at Annie was like seeing what Sue could have been if privilege had been on her side.  Unwillingly, he felt a twinge of familiarity blooming in his chest with her.  It calmed him enough that he gingerly moved over to the couch and sat down.  She made a noise of approval at that, lingering by the window.

“Thank goodness.  You were making me nervous with all that flitting about.  It’s not like I bite unless asked and frankly you’re not my type,” she quipped at him.

“But, you ARE an Alteran, right? Aren’t you…we…some kind of monsters?” Joe dared to ask.

It earned him a snort, “Never! Perish the thought! I’m offended at the very suggestion.  We’ve been around JUST as long as humans and we are JUST as natural.  Ugh, Mal was right.  You have been sheltered.”

She looked around and then sighed, “Although, from what I see, Mal isn’t exactly doing the best job either.  Bloody stupid Alphas and their silly chest-beating, overprotective ways – “ She cut herself off when she heard Joe snicker before rounding on him in mock-annoyance, “And you! You Omegas hold all the power in the bloody world, but you let your dumb Alphas get away with murder because of some archaic hierarchy nonsense.”

“Oh,” the young man replied, dark eyes wide and flabbergasted.

“Yes ‘oh’.  Let me guess, he’s been filling you with that whole ‘you are a delicate flower, let me protect you’ rubbish?” Annie practically sneered.

Joe nodded slightly and she waved a finger at him, “Well don’t you dare let him get away with it.”

For a time, Joe just stared at her, not believing a word that he was hearing.  He watched as the fiery woman who called herself a Beta pushed open a window and drew out a pack of cigarettes.  With delicate motions, she tapped the box and coaxed one out before lighting up.  She wasn’t staring at him or treating him like a revered idol.  Joe didn’t feel pressured with her. 

He passed a thumb over the scar on his nose, “…What did you mean when you said ‘all the power in the world’?”

Annie waved him off dismissively, closing her eyes so that her long lashes fluttered against her cheeks, “No, darling, I’m bored now.  That’s one thing Mal has yet to teach you is that the world is more than Alphas and Omegas and we don’t have to go around every five minutes declaring we’re Alteran to one another.  We all know.”

She looked the skinny young man over and gestured with her cigarette, “Well I suppose YOU don’t know, but I’ll tell you later, alright? For now, go and get dressed. I want to go out.”

His heart stopped briefly and he didn’t dare hope, “We can go outside?”

The woman gave him a positively weird look as if he’d sprouted another head before covering her eyes with her unoccupied hand, “Oh do NOT tell me that Mal’s had you cooped up in here since he found you?”

When Joe nodded quietly again she almost growled, “Idiot.  Then yes, definitely go get dressed.  I am getting you out of this stuffy old house.  However,” her voice dropped a bit, “I am warning you not to run, pet.  I am faster than you and I really WOULD hate to mess up this jumper.”

Joe had begun to make his way back to his room where his clothes were stored, but he paused just to look at the newcomer, “…Thank you.”

She only gave him a smile with her ruby-red lips and a shooing motion with her free hand.

He didn’t need anymore prodding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot harder to write than previous ones because I knew I'd have to approach the 'Heat' topic sooner rather than later. I had to find a good balance. Yes, Heat is a part of an Alteran's life and part of this story, but I don't want it to dominate it. It will influence their relationship dynamics, but there's going to be more to the interplay between Joe and Mal than just a biological imperative.
> 
> Anyway, I DO thank all of you for reading and especially for reviewing. I love seeing the guesses you have or the questions you ask. You're all lovely. I hope you continue to enjoy!
> 
> As an extra: For anyone who's curious, I did use some pictures when I was originally designing the look for my characters.  
> Anthea Prescott was influenced by images of Tuesday Weld  
> Joseph Lorcan was influenced by images of Brendan Frye  
> Mal Fitzroy was influenced by images of Christian Bale (predominantly, Bruce Wayne)  
> Susan Jeffries was influenced by images of Michelle Trachtenberg


	8. All the Power in the World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last double update I'll be able to do for a bit. I'll still strive for at least one a day, but training begins again tomorrow at the Academy, so things are about to get hectic. As with every installment, I have to say I'm grateful for every Kudos and every comment. It's gratifying to know people enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it.

ALTERA

CHAPTER SEVEN  
All the Power in the World

It was surreal for Joe, not being as in-tune with the passing of seasons as he had been in the past.  When he had left the world behind, Autumn was only just beginning and a t-shirt was still acceptable for the outdoors.  He’d been such a part of the world for so many years that he almost expected it would have remained the same without him.  He’d been caught off-guard when he’d reappeared in Mal’s living room wearing a pair of jeans and his favourite raglan only to be instructed by Annie to go and put on a coat or he’d freeze to death.  In the end, she’d seen him stuffed into a dark green cardigan that Mal had bought for him and only then had she whisked them both out of the house.

Joe had been astounded when they made their way to the elevator and he realized just how high up the apartment was.  They were on something like the 16th floor of a high-rise and he wasn’t used to being anywhere but the ground. 

Now, of course, Annie had them wandering in a lovely green park that seemed to border the high-rise all around.  It was a park cultivated specifically for the residents and the office-workers who spent their days in buildings all around the apartment.  There were towering oak trees and stately cherry trees all in the first stages of going bald and losing their leaves all over the yet-verdant grass.  They’d walked along while Annie chattered about this and that and nothing in particular, Joe listening with only half an ear as he once had with Sue and feeling more at peace with the world than he had in almost a month.  Eventually, the woman had dragged him over to a kiosk and bought them both a coffee before settling on a bench in one of the rare beams of sun that broke through.

They sat a companionable, easy distance apart on the bench, both warmed by the coffee and the sun. 

“I’m sufficiently entertained, darling.  We’ll talk now, if you like,” Annie broke the silence with her proclamation.

Joe turned to her quickly and stammered, “Oh.  Um.  Oh, okay.  Well…about what I asked earlier…”

“Ah, that,” Annie said as she pretended to catch her old train of thought again, “Yes.  All the power in the world.  Well, you don’t realize it yet for whatever reason, but Alphas are stupid creatures.  It’s incredibly easy to lead them around by the nose, especially if you’re an Omega.  Especially if you’re THEY’RE Omega.  They’re so desperate that they’ll trip all over themselves for you, darling.  You can trick, dupe, manipulate and mold them as you wish like errant puppy-dogs if you only let yourself be aware of your own power.”

Joe looked at the coffee cup in his hands, “I don’t FEEL like I have a lot of power.”

“Why on earth not?” she raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well…he’s kept me locked up in that house for weeks and when he was really serious about it, just in that room…”

“Rubbish!” Annie nearly shouted, looking stunned, “Even when you fought him?!”

“But…I didn’t fight him.  I was…” Joe looked bitter at his own failure, “I was too scared of him.”

He received a slap on the back of his head for that and he winced as the blonde Beta lectured, “That’s your problem! You LET him bully you! You could have that silly knob by the balls if only you’d stop being a little lamb! Alphas will throw their weight around unchecked unless you’re clever enough to give their knackers the appropriate twist, darling.”

“I can do that?” Joe asked quietly.

Annie sighed and rested a hand on his knee, “Of course you can.  Joseph – “

“I prefer Joe,” he ventured and was relieved when Annie only nodded.

“Joe, then.  I won’t lie to you.  Being an Omega can be a dreadful hassle.  Hormones, babies, smells, impulses and all the rest…but you also have incredible influence if you let yourself.  Yes, Alphas have all the muscle and aggression, but biologically, it exists only for you.  They’re only allowed it to protect you and serve your needs.  Learn how to work that to your advantage and not only do you have a soulmate who will be with you until his dying day, but also a powerful tool,” the Beta continued.

He nodded, soaking up all of the information before chewing his lower lip, “Well…what about Betas?”

“What about us, darling?” She asked airily around the rim of her coffee cup.

“Well, okay, if Omegas and Alphas are a pair and they make…babies…and check and balance each other then where do Betas come in?” He was curious about how this mysterious third aspect fit into everything.

“Oh, we don’t fit in anywhere, Joe.  That’s the positive side of my designation.  I’m without the stress of being stuck with a life-long mate.  I’ll never have to worry about heats or any of it.  Betas are the normal, common designation in our people, an Everyman if you will.  Omegas and Alphas are the rare ones,” Annie turned soft gray eyes onto the Omega.

“You sound like you got off lucky,” Joe said resentfully, picking at his coffee cup.

Annie’s hand squeezed down on his knee, “Oh no, pet, no.  You see, there is one special thing you will experience that a Beta never will.  Absolute belonging.”

“Still doesn’t sound like an even trade to me,” the other said, standing to throw his cup a little harder than necessary at a trash can.

“Humans do seem to have an easier time of it, don’t they?” Annie confided, smiling a bit at a man and a woman walking together with a little girl toddling between them across the park.

“I was totally happy to be one until a month ago,” Joe said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh, were your parents Immersionists?” the elegant woman stood to come and be at his side.

“If that means they pretended to be Human, then yeah.  You don’t sound as pissed about it as Mal did,” Joe gruffed, hands stuffed into his pockets.

“Well, Mal is a bit of a queen and takes things very personally.  It’s a bit of an Alpha trait, dear.  You have it as well.  Alphas take everything personally and react with aggression, whereas Omegas take everything personally and react with guilt.  Well, that’s the negative side of your personalities anyway,” Annie dismissed.

Sensing the end of the conversation and not wanting to go back to the apartment now that their coffee was finished, Joe started walking off in a direction where the city looked familiar beyond the park.  At first he wondered if Annie would grab him or tut at him and force him to remain in the green boundaries of the park, creating yet another (if slightly larger) cage for him.  Instead she just quietly padded along at his side, easy and languid and unconcerned.  Not even really caring where he was going, he just followed his feet until they were on a nearby city street.  He remembered seeing this part of the city when he’d first arrived, tattered and tired over a year ago, but he’d never had a whole lot of reason to return to the rich sector of El Otro. 

A thought came to mind and Joe turned to Annie, watching as a breeze caught her golden curls, “…Do you wanna go to a bar?”

“Bit early in the day for it, isn’t it, pet?” the Beta asked with one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows arched.

Caught, Joe looked a little bit guilty and she quickly sussed it out, “…You want to see someone, don’t you?”

“Yes…” He murmured, sure he would be refused now.

“Girlfriend? Boyfriend?” she asked curiously while pausing, “You can tell me while you lead the way.”

A swell of excitement and anticipation filled Joe and he nodded, taking off at a quick clip obediently, “No, God no,” he muttered hurriedly.

“It’s just…I didn’t have anyone or anything like that,” he reassured Annie as they started for the poor district of the city.

“Fair enough,” Annie said quietly, following his lead, “Does seem a terrible shame, though.”

Joe pinked up to the tips of his ears and shot her a slightly embarrassed look, “She’s just a friend and a co-worker,” he caught himself, “Well…she used to be a co-worker.”

“Now you’re going to tell me that Mal just plucked you up off the street without even asking where you worked or notifying your employer? I owe him a rather stern talking-to at some point.  Do remind me,” the posh woman said loftily to which Joe could only nod.

The streets got a little rougher, but luckily _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ sat just at the edge of the lower-class district.  It was far enough away from the city center that it seemed ‘rough’ and ‘dangerous’ to tourists and new University students just itching for a way to defy mom and dad, but just far enough away from the slums and the docks that regulars looking for a quiet night chose it over the sleazier nightclubs further out.  In honesty, El Otro had two city centers.  There was the bright, gleaming hub of modern progress and financial success that called itself the official City Center and there was also the dim, grimy underbelly of the city, a secondary center that Joe and Sue knew as the Slums.  _Straddlin’ Sally’s_ sat at the middle of them both like the nexus of a giant Venn diagram.

Joe almost felt a wash of relief over his skin when he caught sight of its familiar brick façade.  Its gaudy pink neon sign hadn’t been switched on yet for the day, but he knew it would at least be open.  Behind him, Annie raised an eyebrow at the poorly painted effigy of Betty Page posing over the rusty door.  This joint wasn’t exactly the height of class.

However, the relief was replaced by apprehension which sunk to the pit of his stomach like a stone.  On the run for 12 years, he’d learned very early on to dislike unknown variables.  He’d not been into the bar in almost a month.  He had no idea how it had changed or how the people in it had shifted.  He suddenly realized he had absolutely no idea what he was walking into.  He paused with his fingertips just brushing the cool, aged metal of the main door, his heart pounding like it had that day in the alley leading up to Sue’s apartment. 

Annie’s gentle hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it.

She said, “If you’d rather leave it for another day…”

Stubborn, Joe shook his head and pushed the door open, walking in.  It was pretty quiet in the bar save for a few of the early-bird locals talking low in a corner off to the side.  Clearly Jonah hadn’t fixed the jukebox yet.  There was a television down at one end of the bar, but it never really worked.  Sue had joked for ages about hollowing the stupid thing out and turning it into a tip-jar if Jonah continued to let it take up space on her bar.

Speak of the devil.  Sue was leaning on her elbows, deep in boredom as she pretended to survey the bar.  Joe knew that look all too well.  It was the look she wore when she daydreamed in the quiet moments at work, expertly crafted to look vigilant.  In actuality, she couldn’t have been further away.  He could walk out right now if he wanted and she’d never know he was there.  He never had to face this.  If she had changed, he’d never have to know.  He could just keep the memory of Sue as she had been and disappear right back out the door and go to a different bar with Annie right this very moment.  His feet rooted to the spot with indecision.

Suddenly, Annie was sweeping past him in a dash of soft perfume, her blonde curls shining a bit under the shitty lighting as she went up to the bar.  The moment to run had passed because Sue was looking up now, paying attention again.  Her darkly lined and shadowed eyes were on her new customer.

“Wow.  Check you out.  Slumming it? What can I get for you?” Sue asked, never bothering with politeness.

Her voice, all snappy with northern urban clip, was like a balm on Joe’s ears and he just let himself bask in it for a minute.

“Just here with a friend, actually, and if you wouldn’t mind getting a lady a scotch, I’d be ever so grateful,” Annie cooed, sitting herself down on a stool with the grace of a cat.

“Cheap friend,” Sue snorted, reaching beneath the bar to start grabbing at bottles.

“No, dear, just a sentimental one,” the corner of Annie’s lips curved into a polite smile.

“Yeah,” Joe filled in, walking up silently and standing there, quiet as ever with his hands in his pockets.

Sue looked up sharply at the sound of that almost inaudible Midwestern drawl, her eyes widening to saucers.  The bottle she held was paused in mid-pour.  Her jaw was tight.  Suddenly, she was slamming the bottle down onto the table and vaulting herself over the bar.  Before Joe even knew what was going on, she’d wrapped him in a fierce hug that smelled of cloves and the cheap incense he knew she liked from the discount supermarket.  He was too shocked to know what to do at first and by the time he went in for an actual hug, she’d pulled back and slapped him full across the face. 

At the bar, Annie had finished pouring her own drink and was turned around to watch, not saying a thing.

“You asshole! I thought you were dead! I thought you’d gotten mugged or something!” Sue was yelling at Joe.

She punched him in the arm and he whined a bit, taking a step back, “I’m sorry! I was…”

He suddenly realized he had nothing he could tell her that wouldn’t sound insane.  Brown eyes huge with realization, he turned helplessly to Annie.

The Englishwoman raised her glass, “He was re-locating, darling.”

Sue turned a sharply assessing gaze on Annie, “Didn’t know you had friends in such high places, Coffee Stain.”

Not giving Joe a chance to reply, Annie folded her legs and smirked, “His boyfriend introduced us.”

“Boyfriend?” Sue didn’t sound disgusted, but she sounded wounded that she’d missed or known so little about her friend.

Joe heard the plaintive note in her voice and knotted his fingers in his own dark curls, “…I’m sorry, Sue.  Really sorry.  Things have just been…up in the air, like.”

“Well…well are you coming back to work?” Sue watched him, her eyes begging, “Jonah said he’d take you back if you ever showed.  The new guy’s shit, Coffee Stain.  He’s total shit.”

The Omega was at a loss.  He stared at Sue, once again completely without words.  He’d love, so dearly love, to come back to work with her and sit beneath the bar hiding from customers while she yelled orders.  He’d love to be so sweet and un-complicated again.  He knew what he’d want, but his new life was swiftly teaching him that what he wanted and what he got were two completely different things.  Sue must have seen the doubt in his face because she’d already started to harden again, the skin around her lips nearly white with tension as she pulled back.

Annie’s cultured tones halted them both, “He probably will.  He just needs to sort some things out with the new beau.  You know how it is.” 

She finished her drink as the two stared at each other again, plunking a bit of money down on the bar.

Slowly, Sue nodded and seemed to come to a decision about how she felt, “Okay.  I’ve gotta get back to work, Coffee Stain, but…but you come back as soon as you know, okay?”

“’Kay.  I promise…” Joe said before letting Annie guide him out of the bar.

He turned to her once they were back out on the street, “You know that Mal will never let me come back to work, Annie.  Why did you tell her that?”

Annie merely gave him a secretive smile and tapped him on the chest.

“All the power in the world, Joe.  Remember, that.”


	9. Long Distance

ALTERA

CHAPTER EIGHT  
Long Distance

After the near-fiasco at the bar, Joe had decided he was ready to come back to the apartment he refused to call home.  Annie was gracious enough not to comment on the events of the day and remained easy company all the way back.  Once they were swaddled in the soothing colours of the living room, she insisted on ordering takeout because cooking was simply ‘such a bore’.  She’d ended up calling out for curry before settling herself on the couch like a queen and letting out a content sigh.  She toed off her heels and let them flop down to rest on the carpet, leaving the armchair for Joe.

Once he’d removed his cardigan and shoes, he was only too happy to take the spot she’d left for him.

Knowing it would be a wait for their food, Joe decided to try for conversation again.  He worried his lower lip between his teeth.  Annie made him comfortable…comfortable enough to ask about Alterans without any prodding.  Perhaps she could tell him what he wanted to know without the out-pouring of emotion Mal tended towards.

Cautiously, he said, “Annie? What exactly ARE Alterans? I feel like I know everything about…us…except what we actually are.”

She looked at him seriously, but respectfully, “That’s a bit of a difficult question, darling.  Since most humans don’t know we exist, there haven’t exactly been genealogists tracking us down and recording.  What I CAN tell you is that we are as old as humans or perhaps a little older.  What historians we do have assume that we are an evolutionary offshoot of Humanity that just didn’t thrive as well as they did.  We were too specialized, they suppose.  They also think that most of our ancestral roots were close to the Nordic part of the world.”

Here she gave him a little wink, “Accounts for stories of Trolls and Huldra.”

“Hul-what?” Joe asked.

Annie laughed and waved it off, “Don’t worry about it, pet.  Just an old legend that we may or may not have inspired.”

“Okay…well…all that’s fair enough but…why do Alterans have to hide?” Joe asked, a frown settling on his face.

“Some of our kind reckon we went into hiding during the rise of monotheistic religion.  Witch hunts and demons and all that.  We’d been sort of dwindling off for years and so when we were actually seen in our Alteran form, it was quite scary for humans.  Eventually, we just went into hiding altogether.  It’s not so hard…though some of us take it harder than others,” she sighed, clearly talking about Mal.

“So how come you can look human sometimes?” Joe wondered, studying her face.

“Now THAT, I can’t tell you, darling.  That information was lost long ago to time and genetics,” she shrugged, “But we all have an Alteran Face.  You do too.”

“…Can I see yours?” he sounded a little breathless with apprehension this time.

Annie only smiled a little and nodded.  Then, she closed her eyes and focused a bit.  She bared her teeth and Joe could see how they lengthened, not into fangs, but enough to be dog-like.  Her ears widened just a bit at the edges and pulled up into leaf-ish points that swiveled to and fro as if catching sound.  The nails on her hands grew slightly and, after a moment of uncomfortable squirming, she shifted up slightly to allow a sleek tail to escape.  It was slender with a little tuft at the end, waving a bit.  Joe watched it all with wide eyes, waiting for her to turn into the terrible monster he remembered from childhood, but that was it.

He jumped a bit when she opened her eyes and they were black as pitch, but when she spoke, she sounded just like Annie.

“Not so bad, right?” she offered with a smirk.

“…So I look like that under this?” the younger man pinched at his own ear, giving it a wiggle.

“Of course you do, pet, but because you’re an Omega, your traits are less pronounced.  An Alpha has the strongest traits, Betas second and Omegas are nearest to human.  I suspect it’s a camouflage precaution, but I can’t know for sure,” she shrugged.

“I…how do I do it?” Joe finally said, leaning forward in his chair over his Indian-folded legs.

She huffed a fond laugh, “My, but you are FULL of difficult questions!”

Immediately, Joe curled back in on himself and she had to hold out a hand to stop him, “Hush now, that wasn’t a criticism.  I’m just trying to figure out an answer.  To be honest, you just TELL yourself to do it.  It will be hard for you because you never have, but you have to will yourself to change.”

There was a sudden knock on the door and she shook herself, the changes soaking back into her skin easily as if they’d never been there.  She blinked and suddenly her eyes were normal again, whites and irises and all.  She called out a quick ‘coming!’ to the person at the door before standing and padding over.  There came the sound of an opening door and the smell of spices as the delivery man dropped off their food and Annie paid him.  It gave Joe time to seriously think about what he’d been told, but not enough time to try for himself.  All too soon, his caretaker was back with a flounce of curls, setting out food and talking animatedly about the need for bad television.

Soon, the tv was turned on to some dreadful soap and there was no real time to think about things anymore as the evening wore on into companionable silence.

Joe would worry about it more tomorrow.

~~~

At the end of the evening, Joe had been thrilled to find he wasn’t being forcibly closed in the room.  Annie even offered him the use of Mal’s bed.  The idea had made him shudder a bit though, so he’d thanked her and gone on to the room he’d been sleeping in, though he left the door open both out of spite and for the little rush of control it gave him.  Take THAT, Mal.  His door was unlocked and the world wasn’t exploding.  He changed into his pajamas in his bathroom feeling rather smug, but when he ventured out, he could hear Annie talking.  From the sound of it, she was clearly on her phone and Joe…well he couldn’t help but listen.

He crept just to the door of his room and crouched, peering out and down the hallway.  Annie had her back to him, standing over near the kitchen and smoking.  Her face looked annoyed.

“Do you have any idea what a monumental div you are? I am so frustrated with you right now I could bloody well scream.  You locked him in a room AND kidnapped him!  He was terrified when I found him and didn’t even know you’d left.”

There was a pause wherein her face made a funny little contortion and then she was off again.

“Don’t you DARE pull that excuse on me, you thick Alpha moron! Doing what’s best for him, my arse! You’re being a possessive prick is what you are.”

Another pause.  Her shoulders tensed.

“I don’t care if he’s impudent or he swears! He’s an adult! For fuck’s sake, Mal, you’re trying to woo a husband, not raise a nun! Let him swear! Let him smoke and drink and go out sometimes! You are smothering him! What you’re doing now isn’t love.  It’s possession and I KNOW you’re a better man than that.”

Joe watched wide-eyed as she paced to put her cigarette out, still ranting.

“Why did you leave without telling him? He’d confused enough as it is!”

She listened carefully for a long time and then eventually made her way over to the armchair where she slumped and put a hand to her forehead.

“…I can respect that, darling, but you just left after telling him he was pretty much expected to have your babies.  That was low.  No matter how noble your reason, it was a shitty thing to do.”

Annie let out a powerful sigh full of too many things for Joe to indentify all at once.

“When are you coming back?”

She looked up towards Joe’s room and he ducked back in swiftly before she saw him, but still he listened.

“And what if he’s never ready, Mal? You can’t leave the poor poppet in limbo forever.  He’s got a job he wants to go back to…he’s got friends and a life.  You can’t put that on hold just because you’re not man enough to deal with some feelings.”

Another pause filled the air.

“Mal, just talk to him.  I’ll set up my laptop so you two can video-chat.  He does TRY to understand when you just talk to him as a person and not as a potential mate.  No, I insist.  You will start tomorrow at noon your time.  No arguments.  I’ll see you soon.”

Joe heard a click that meant she’d hung up and he moved quickly over to his bed in case she suspected anything.  He was confused now, wishing he could have heard Mal’s side of the conversation.  Now his head was buzzing with all of the possibilities…all the unknown variables.  It made him nervous and suddenly he was reaching out for his radio.  A bit of low-grade sound would distract him and help him to sleep.  As he fumbled for the button, his fingers brushed against a bit of paper neatly folded and tucked away up under a corner of the radio.  Curiously, he pushed himself up on one elbow and tugged it out.  It was addressed to him in neat lettering.

The young man ran a hand over his nose-scar again, a slight nervous tic he’d never been able to shake, and quietly unfolded it.  There was no point in putting it off.

_“Joseph,  
I frightened you. I’m sorry about that.  Unfortunately, what I told you tonight is a part of our biology that neither you nor I can stop…unless action is taken.  You will only go into Heat if you are perpetually exposed to my scent…therefore I am removing myself from the house until such time that you feel ready to come to terms with the future.  I am leaving you in the care of a trusted friend, so don’t be afraid anymore.”_

At the bottom, Joe could just make out where the Alpha had started to write ‘love’ above his name, but had neatly crossed it out.  Instead, the note now ended with an austere ‘sincerely’ and then his signature beneath. 

Joe was stumped.  He was well, truly and honestly surprised.  He rolled the note over and over again in his hands, feeling the paper sliding between his fingers.  He read it over and over again, trying to make sense of it.  Of course it was a very straight-forward message and what it was saying was easy to grasp…it was the WHY of it that so perplexed Joe.  As far as he’d known of Mal, the other man was eager to goad him into compliance with his wishes for mating and child-rearing.  This sudden respect…this show of care and delicacy…it wasn’t what he had expected of Mal at all.  He hadn’t realized the man was capable of it.

Something in him was touched.

When he finally put his head down to sleep that night, it was easier than he first imagined in might be.  Something…some massive knot of concern…had loosened.  It wasn’t completely undone, but it no longer pressed tight into his guts.  When his dark eyes closed, face smoothing out, he found a deep rest that he couldn’t remember having ever enjoyed before.

~~~

The next day had been better.  Joe and Annie had gone out again, getting even more fresh air into his lungs.  She was funny.  She didn’t ask many questions about him at all, but unlike most people in the ugly city, it was out of respect instead of apathy.  She was content to spend time with him as he was instead of prying into his past without permission.  Frankly, it was relaxing to know how little stress was placed on him while Annie ‘ruled the roost’ so to speak.  Instead of being nosy, she’d taken him for a wander of the other parts of the city, parts he’d rarely tried to access before.

The only questions she HAD bothered to ask were about his likes and dislikes.  She’d scoffed early on when he’d tried to demure about having everything he needed, shaking her head vehemently and insisting that ‘no one his age should be content with beige, brown, and dead Englishmen’.  In the end, he’d confessed that he liked checkers and so she’d purchased a board for the house, insisting that they would play that night after dinner.  She’d picked up a few DVDs for herself (tried to do the same for Joe except that he literally had no clue where to start) and fussed over some pictures.

Joe hadn’t been sure about that, but she’d insisted that the house needed some of him in it as well as Mal.  After a bit of friendly bullying, he’d settled on a framed print of something that was supposedly ‘famous graffiti art’.  Something about a Bankie or other.  He didn’t know really and when Annie had questioned him about it, he’d only been able to smile just the smallest bit and tell her it reminded him of good things.  Annie still didn’t know he’d been homeless ever, so how could he express to her that it made him feel like he was free on the streets again? Nevertheless, she’d bought it for him with a smile.

He didn’t ask for much and what he did have was only because she’d badgered him. 

Eventually they made their way home and at four precisely she settled him on the couch and put the laptop in front of him.  She turned it on and he watched with dread as it went through its start-up sequence.  He hoped it would crash or something would go wrong.  Sure, the note last night had been  reassuring, but looking at a piece of paper was quite a different thing to talking to the man face-to-(almost) face.

However, with a couple practiced flicks of her finger and a click or two on the mouse-pad built into the keyboard, the video-chat programme came up. 

Then there was a dial tone.

Then…and then there was Mal looking haggard but presentable, his fierce eyes raking up and down Joe from across the miles as if to see he was still in one piece.

They stared at each other for a long moment, neither sure of what to say.

At last, remembering the note, Joe dared to speak first.

He broke the silence with a soft, shy, “…Hi.”


	10. Backbone

ALTERA

CHAPTER NINE  
Backbone

Being the first to speak had made Joe unsure of himself at first, but he gained confidence when the tense lines of exhaustion in Mal’s face eased.  The sharpness in his eyes mellowed and his body seemed to uncoil.

“…It’s good to see your face,” Mal said, his voice as deep and rumbling even over the internet as in real life.

Joe went silent, awkwardness swelling in his breast.  What did he say when he couldn’t return a sentiment so willingly given? He found he couldn’t look Mal in the eyes just then and looked off to the side.  He was afraid of the Alpha’s ire, but he knew if he knuckled under and put on an affectation of affection all it would do was make it harder for both of them in the long run.  More than that, however…he just panicked.

All he heard was a sigh through the connection. 

“I understand if you can’t say it back,” The big Alpha said, though he didn’t have to say that he liked it.

It put a little bit of fire into Joe, hearing Mal talk to him as though he were addressing a particularly stubborn child, “You did things to me that weren’t okay.”

“I tried to make you understand that it was for your own well being,” Mal tried to defend, frowning.

Joe was quick to cut him off, “I hated all of it.”

Mal’s frown grew sharper across his leonine features and the Omega almost quailed at the sight of his displeasure.  Then, when courage nearly failed him, he felt Annie’s slender hand on his shoulder, encouraging him, and he resolved himself.  She had told him to stand up for himself and not be bullied…that their relationship (if ever there would be one) would only be bleak without a hard-won balance between them.  He didn’t realize how very difficult it would be when the other man’s vexation was laid out before him, though.  Still…if he wanted to avoid further misery, he had to start showing his spine here and now.

“I KNOW you didn’t, but you really must -,” Mal made another attempt, only to be thwarted yet again.

“No! Just…don’t,” both Mal and Joe seemed startled by his outburst at first, but the younger of the two quickly regained his verbal footing and charged onward.

“You keep saying that you were doing the right thing and you were trying to help me, but I was more afraid of you than anything else in my entire life. I’m twenty-five and I’m too old to be treated like a little kid or made to heel like a dog! As a matter of fact…I refuse to be treated that way!”

“You may not like hearing this, but as far as our people are concerned, you are a child, Joseph.  You don’t understand and all I want is to be your guide, your guardian.  It’s what’s BEST,” Mal was quick to point out.

The Omega was bristling when he shot back, “Yeah? Well, Annie talked to me like an adult, she let me go out, she treated me like an equal, she told me everything and she let me see my friends and it’s just…it’s just better!” the younger man with the dark curls vented in a great rush.

For a minute, Mal seemed at a loss for words before he glowered sharply and huffed, “You shouldn’t question or doubt your Alpha.”

“Or what? You’ll hit me on the nose with a rolled up newspaper next?” The former vagabond scoffed tiredly, already worn out from the argument.

Mal’s eyes widened and he looked at a loss.  Clearly, the Omega was a bigger handful than he’d been counting on.  He’d gotten his spirit back during their brief parting and it was such a change from what he’d originally seen.

“To be honest…” Joe tried, watching the other warily, “I’d rather get to know you as a person first and just…leave all that stupid Alpha and Omega stuff.  At least for a little while?”

Mal leaned back in the chair where he was seated, his face clouded in thought and his blue eyes far away even while they looked straight at Joe.  He was still as stone and everything seemed to go quiet as he was forced to re-assess his intended mate for the very first time.  The dark-haired drifter was aware of Annie coming in close to his shoulder again for support as if fearing the outcome of the pause.  The intensity on the Alpha’s face had her a little nervous as well though she would hardly admit it.  She was proud of Joe for taking his stand, but she’d never imagined it would be easy.  After all, the dominant designation of their race could be powerfully stubborn and tantrums were a terrifying sight to behold.

When he finally spoke again, the Omega released his lungs with a great ‘whoosh’, not realizing that he’d been holding his breath all through it.

“Did you get that item I left for you?” the proud man inquired in a voice far softer than he was used to using.

For a moment, Joe wracked his brains before remembering the little note and he nodded, “Yeah.  I…I appreciate it.”

“I’m glad,” Mal said, bowing his head ever so slightly before blinking at where Joe’s new graffiti art hung.

“What is THAT on my wall?” he blustered.

Joe turned round to look, craning his head on his pale-willow neck, “Oh.  That? Annie bought it for me.  I liked it.”

Mal dared to look appalled, “Yes, but in the house?”

“It reminds me of home,” Joe rallied defensively.

“Of a tramp’s home, maybe,” Was the other man’s sharp reply.

The Omega went quiet and looked at Mal from under his curls.  He couldn’t decide whether to give way to the well of shame from Mal’s obvious though unintended judgment (because he wasn’t stupid and he knew how homelessness was looked down on by the well-off people of the world) or if he should rally to defend his history of hard-scrabble independence.  In the end, the latter won and he lifted his chin up, sweeping his hair from his forehead.

“I WAS a tramp, thanks very much,” he said.

Now it was the blonde businessman’s turn to be taken aback, peering at his ‘intended’ with wide eyes.  The younger of the two refused to blush or hide his face under that gaze.

“You were homeless?” Mal finally inquired.

“Yeah.  After I ran away and stole my identification papers, I didn’t have anywhere to go.  I just…started walking.  I figured out I could get jobs and buy my own food.  I just kinda lived wherever I could.  Abandoned apartments were good.  I slept under a few bridges, but that was shit,” Joe informed him with a shrug.

“So ever since the Orphanage…?” the Alpha asked, trying to make a timeline in his head.

“Yup,” the drifter nodded, popping the ‘p’ absently.

“You could have been killed!” Mal shouted as the implications of it all finally sunk in.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t,” Joe shot back, “Because I’m a lot smarter and faster and stronger than you give me credit for.”

Mal didn’t say anything to that, but his eyes did flick back to the painting on the wall.  In lieu of commenting on the Omega’s challenge, he considered it with that calculating look he wore so well.  After his eyes swept over it a few times, he ran a hand over his hair, blowing air out of his nose.

“…You know, it’s not that terrible, really,” he conceded.

It earned him the smallest of hopeful smiles from the younger man on the other side of the screen.

“I have a question, actually,” Joe tried, realizing that there wasn’t going to be a better time.

The blonde man held one hand up to the screen in a beckoning gesture, inviting the other to say whatever he liked.

Taking a deep breath, the dark-haired man said, “I want to go back to work.”

Mal made what had to be the most interesting sour face Joe had ever seen in his young life at the very suggestion.

 “That’s a desire, not a question,” he tried to stall.

 Annie realized now would be a good time to step in.

She leaned in over Joe’s shoulder, “I’d escort him there and see that he got back here at night afterwards.  I’ll furnish him with a mobile so that he can call in case of emergencies.  Really, darling, there’s no reason to say no.”

Still, despite that reassurance, Mal looked like he wanted to choke.  If the moment hadn’t been so serious, Joe would have felt compelled to laugh at the peculiar face the other man was making while he thought about it.  It had turned into a funny mix between consideration and repulsion and defeat that made him look a little bit constipated (though he would never dare say it out loud).  At least Annie was unwavering, staring down through the computer’s built-in webcam like a hawk trying to transfix a mouse.  If he hadn’t seen it for himself, Joe would refuse to believe that anyone was capable of cowing great, regal Mal Fitzroy. 

Yet, despite Annie’s pressure, Mal still seemed set and Joe could feel any hope of freedom slipping.

Desperation blooming in his chest, he said very simply, “Please, Mal…”

After that it was easy to watch the cracks form as the big man’s resolve crumbled utterly.  In that moment, seeing the very shape of Mal changing before his eyes, Joe finally believed the truth of having all the power in the world.  With one simple world he had rattled the iron will of the normally intractable businessman.

“You’ll escort him to work, give him a phone, see that he gets home as soon as his work is over and take him home immediately if there’s anything at all suspicious,” the Alpha barked out his concession to Annie before turning his attention back to Joe, “…and I would like to continue talking this way while I am away.”

“Sure.  Okay,” Joe said simply, seeing no trial in it since he was pleased to be earning back so many freedoms he’d imagined as being lost forever in his early days trapped in the apartment.

“Good.  For now, I DO have to go.  I’d like to do this at the same time tomorrow,” Mal’s tone had gone perfunctory as he prepared to close down but at the last moment he turned a look onto the younger man that might just be called ‘affectionate’, “Take care. Good afternoon.”

Joe raised a hand to wave and the connection closed as Mal hung up.

Annie merely reached over Joe’s shoulder to shut the laptop with a ‘click’.

“What did I tell you, poppet?”  She said to him with nothing but encouragement in her tone, “Now, what do you say I drive you back to the bar so you can tell your lady friend that you want your job back?”

~~~

As it happened, getting his job back was just as easy as Sue had told him it would be.  That very night (with a new mobile that he had no idea how to use in his pocket courtesy of a doting Annie), Joe was comfortably seated in one of his customary places by the beer cooler while his old friend was working with ‘the new puke’ at the bar.  In the end, Jonah couldn’t be bothered to let the new guy that Sue had complained about go, but he agreed fully that the guy sucked at Joe’s old job.  So he’d put Joe back on his tasks and had simply ordered his bartender to train the new guy there.

Sue had looked ready to kill Jonah and had warned that, if the new guy couldn’t measure up behind the bar either, she wouldn’t be held responsible for the consequences.

It was about 10pm now and the night was in a moderate slump.  There were more customers there than there normally would be on a slow night, but it certainly wasn’t their Rush Week crowds either.  There was enough business to keep them on their toes, but nowhere near enough to have them running back and forth.  At the moment, it was decently quiet at the bar itself and Sue was trying to teach Puke (Joe had yet to learn his real name since the bartender insisted only on the nickname she’d given him) how to make some mixed drink or another. 

On the pretense of doing an inventory check, Joe slipped behind the bar and edged over near Puke to check one of the taps.  His arm brushed the other guy’s leg.

“Well hello down there,” purred the new guy, turning his attention suddenly away from Annie.

Joe looked up at him, blinking owlishly.  The new guy was big and burly, practically bulging at the seams.  He clearly worked out since most of what was on him was gym muscle…it wasn’t smart muscle gained from specific tasks or work.  His head was shaved bald and he had a smirk that only edged up half his face, large but strange and not yet ready to turn itself into a full smile.  This guy looked like he’d just stepped out of an action film.

“Uh.  Hi,” Joe said from his place down on the floor.

“And where did you come from?” the new guy winked.

Suddenly, Sue was pushing him away, frowning, “He came from the crate near the beer fridge, Puke.  He also has a boyfriend.  Care to finish learning how to make this drink, princess, or would you like to be a total fuck-up at the bar too?”

“I have a name, you know,” he tried to argue as he was pushed away from Joe to his old position.

“Not until you earn it, you don’t.  Coffee Stain down there’s been here for a year and he still hasn’t earned his back yet.  Now shut up and mix the drink,” Sue commanded imperiously.

The new guy let out a snort, and picked up with his work, but turned over his shoulder to wink at Joe.

Needless to say, Joe was quick to find work elsewhere for awhile.


	11. Kiss with a Fist

ALTERA

CHAPTER TEN  
Kiss with a Fist

It was another ‘internet date’ as Annie had taken to calling them.  Joe was curled up on the couch in a pair of sweatpants and a big t-shirt, his feet bare with a blanket over his legs.  The computer was set up in front of him again and Mal’s image was just coming into focus as the man fought to find a good spot for his own laptop.  They’d been chatting for about a week now and Mal had finally calmed down about Joe going to work when the other man continued to show up for their little chats on time.  Today, Mal was sitting at a small table on a porch looking out over a beach.  Joe couldn’t help but gaze at the strange vista.

“Hello, Joseph,” Mal greeted as was his custom.

“Hi,” the other returned, this time with a little wave and a bit of a smile.

Joe had to admit that, when he wasn’t acting like a glandular alpha male, Mal could be pleasant.  He seemed to work hard to be a considerate conversation partner and his voice was soothing.  They never talked about anything in particular now that Joe had laid down the ‘no Alteran talk’ rule and the blonde man was very obedient to that wish.  He’d only tried to bring it up once since and he’d been so dogged about it that Joe had simply turned off the computer.  Mal had been so cowed by the reproach the next day that the Omega was inclined to forgive him.

“How was work last night?” the other man asked easily, leaning back in his chair and looking relaxed for once.

“Work-like.  Sue almost broke some guy’s hand,” Joe replied with a grin.

Mal’s eyebrows rose, “Did she now?”

“Yeah.  Some drunk college kid on a dare.  He grabbed her ass while she was bringing his buddies a beer, so she convinced him not to do it again,” the Omega explained, looking amused.

“She doesn’t get in trouble for that kind of behavior?” Mal asked curiously.

“Nah.  She just intimidates them into admitting they deserve it.  Honestly, it doesn’t happen that often.  Most of the regulars know better,” Joe shrugged.

“Are you happy?”

It was a question Mal asked almost obsessively every day when they chatted and, as usual, it was apropos of nothing.  Joe noticed that sometimes the Alpha would sort of tune out while he was talking and focus instead on the younger man’s face, studying it with a keen detective’s eye as if he could take in absolutely everything.  The question usually followed these moments.

As always, Joe was inclined to indulge him, “Yes, Mal.  I like my job and I have to admit that it’s…nice…not worrying about where I’m going to sleep.”

He still hadn’t told the blonde man about his warehouse.

He continued, knotting a finger up in his own curls, “You’ve gotta be pretty happy yourself.  That looks beautiful.”

Mal seemed confused, but then turned his head at the crashing of a wave over his shoulder and smiled as he understood.

“You like it?” He asked, mouth cocked up in a lopsided smile.

“Yeah.  I never made it to the West Coast.  Is that a hotel?” Joe asked, making small talk and snuggling down a bit more onto the couch.

“No.  I keep a second home out here since I do so much work in California.  It helps me clear my head,” Mal replied, gesturing over his shoulder back to the beach behind him.

“That’s awesome,” the Omega said with a grin.

For a moment, Mal paused before offering, “You know, I’d be happy to bring you out here sometime.  The sun would be good for you.  You’re so pale.”

“Nah, it’s better this way.  I get freckles when I’m out in the sun,” Joe informed him with a sour expression, pinching his own cheek.

The bigger man suddenly looked playfully interested, leaning forward.  His smirk had turned a little sultry.

“Oh really? Now I’m definitely going to have to bring you out here,” he said as if that was that.

“Trust me, it’s not that great.  The sun makes my scar go all weird and pale,” Joe thumbed over the scar on his nose to demonstrate his point.

More serious this time, Mal said, “I’ve actually always been curious about that scar.  Where did you get it?”

There was a warning tone in Mal’s voice that Joe took heed of, watching his intense sea-storm blue eyes.  Mal hated the idea of his Omega taking any injury past or present.  It put a dark, possessive light in his expression and Joe had to be very sharp with him if he wanted him to snap out of it.  He tended to play nonchalant at moments like this to convince the posturing Alpha that it really was alright.

“This?” he tapped the smallish mark, “I was new to the whole homeless thing and it was pouring.  I found the first dry place I could, but didn’t realize it was right near a night club.  A drunk found me there and his friends dared him to throw a bottle at me.  It broke on my face, I ran and that was it.”

“Do you know who they were?” the blonde man growled.

Joe was quick to hold up a finger, “No and it’s been years.  Just let it go.  I have.  Besides, stuff like that taught me to be smarter so I got in less trouble when I was older.”

Mal still looked displeased, but when Joe shot him an unwavering look of calm, he let out a great sigh and let it go.

“I really was serious about bringing you out here.  When you’re ready…” he said, gesturing with a large hand.

“When I’m ready I’ll definitely go,” the Omega nodded gently, a reward for Mal’s good behavior.

The Alpha looked nothing short of chuffed and Joe felt a little bloom of warmth in his chest for that.

~~~

Joe had gone to work on a happy note, strangely ebullient after his successful chat with Mal.  He wasn’t analyzing it, really, but he noticed that their relationship was getting smoother.  He was learning how to counter the big man’s temper and how to be gentle with his ‘buttons’.  Even when Joe told the other man something he didn’t like, he didn’t demand to come home and sort it out.  Still, even with everything going so well, Joe wasn’t really thinking about the future.  He’d almost allowed himself to forget that Mal would have to come home someday and then everything really would change.  He wasn’t thinking about those big decisions looming ever closer with every successful conversation they shared.

Instead, right now he was just thinking about getting the leaking trash bag from behind the bar out to the dumpster in the alley so he, Sue and ‘Puke’ (because he still hadn’t learned his name) could finish closing and go home.  They were closing up slightly early, so Joe was planning on sneaking over to the warehouse to pick a few things up before he called Annie to come and get him.

Of course, he hadn’t been counting on the new guy to be waiting out in the alley, a cigarette tucked between his lips.  Startled momentarily, Joe paused, blinking at the unexpected intruder.  He was still trying to get used to having another person floating around the bar.  Something about this guy left Joe feeling anxious in his own skin, left him feeling agitated and it was only getting worse.  He didn’t dare say anything though.  He’d had a hard time standing up for himself around this new interloper for some reason and what was more, he was actually a good worker behind the bar so Joe was sure he wouldn’t be listened to anyway.  Besides, Susan needed the help.

While he was frozen, the man caught sight of him and a grin spread over his face.  It wasn’t a playful grin like the kind Joe had gotten so used to splitting Mal’s handsome features.  This one was odd.  It made him feel funny.

“Hey there.  Workin’ hard or hardly workin’ tonight?” he said in a peculiar, jocular way.

Joe didn’t reply more than a mumble, moving past ‘Puke’ to throw the bags in the bin.  He was stopped when the other man flicked his cigarette away, the red of the cherry glowing in the dark until it was swallowed up by a puddle.  He took the bags from Joe and winked.

“Let us big guys handle that, huh? Say, what’s your real name? That girl in there won’t tell me your real one.  If you’re worried about it, I’ll go first.  I’m Kevin.  How’s that?” he said, standing there with the bags and invading the smaller man’s space.

Joe looked down and to the side, muttering out, “Joe” quickly before turning and trying to leave.

“Joe’s not a good name for you.  It’s so average.  You’re not average, are you Joe?” Kevin asked, his voice arresting the smaller man where he stood.

The subject of his attention merely looked at him from beneath his curls, shoulders creeping up towards his elbows in a defensive posture.  It felt like someone had dropped ice down his spine and he just wanted to go back inside to Sue where it was safe.

“No, we’ve been working together for awhile now and you’re not average at all.  You’re special,” Kevin continued.

He took another step closer and Joe held up his hands, “Put the bags in the dumpster.”

Joe stuttered out the order and ran inside as fast as he could.  He slowed his pace once he was over the threshold so he wouldn’t upset Sue who was quietly counting out the till.  Even when he was truly in trouble, the former tramp never liked to let anyone else know that he was in distress.  That was a weakness and he’d learned to never let weakness show.  Even if he was safe now and surrounded by people he knew he could trust, it was just habit.  He slowed his thumping heart and made his way over to the bar.

“Hey Sue? Mind if I knock off a little early? I wanna go grab some stuff from my old place before Annie comes to pick me up,” he ventured (though part of him was looking for an excuse to get away from Kevin).

She gave him a wry look and straightened up, “Getting lazy, Coffee Stain?”

He looked abashed and rubbed the back of his head, knowing that the cute routine could get her sometimes.

Tonight was a score.

Sue just sighed and tried to sound put-upon, “Fine, but I’m docking your pay.”

“You don’t pay me,” he shot back.

“Well, I’ll tell Jonah, then,” she returned.

“He likes me better!” Joe shouted as he dashed for the door, feeling a little better for the banter with his friend.

Sue smirked as the door closed behind him, “Little shit.”

~~~

The night air was fresh in Joe’s lungs as he trotted the familiar path back to the bay area where his creaky little warehouse haven sat.  He was quiet as he went, peering around to make sure nobody else had slipped in and occupied the place while he was gone.  He was happy to find that there weren’t any signs of disturbance down the dock leading to the rusty structure and even happier when it didn’t look like anyone had opened the doors since he’d left it last so long ago.  Gripping the door in strong hands, he pushed it open with a soft shriek of metal that sounded all too loud to his ears.

After a moment of stillness, Joe looked up to make sure the sound hadn’t drawn anyone out.  When the coast was still clear after a few tense minutes, he slipped inside.  He breathed the ocean air again with all its mingled scents as it filtered beneath the sharp tang of metal and fish.  It was pleasing to note that his bedroll was still in one place and he walked over to shift it to the side, prying at a loose floorboard.  Beneath it was a large jar where all of his accumulated savings were squirreled away along with a few trinkets he’d bothered to salvage from the orphanage before his flight.  All of his paperwork was sealed in a plastic sleeve along with a picture of his parents. 

Beneath all of that was a stuffed black cat with an orange ribbon around its neck and a jingle bell.  It was a soft thing, large enough for a child to hold close and with floppy limbs.  One of its ears was teethed to nothing and it was missing one of its bright green button eyes.  His mother had made it for him when he was little and it wasn’t something he could ever really bear to part with.  Joe turned the soft thing over in his hands, absorbed with it (for he didn’t pull it out of its safe spot very often).

He was so wrapped up in his memory that he didn’t hear the feet behind him.  He didn’t realize that he’d left the door to his warehouse open.  He didn’t realize anything was wrong.

Then there was a sharp blow to the back of his head.

A moment of white-hot, blinding pain.

The world tipped on its axis as he slid to the floor.

Then darkness.


	12. No More Safe Houses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To apologize for what will probably be slow updates over the working week, have another update. This chapter is darker than the rest, so be prepared for some Joe!whump.
> 
> As always, you're all wonderful people (even my silent readers) and knowing I'm giving you something you enjoy makes it all the easier for me to continue writing this story.

ALTERA  
CHAPTER ELEVEN  
No More Safe Houses

Things returned slowly.

The first thing that Joe was aware of was a stinging beam of light directly in his eyes, burning through the cracks between his eyelids.  He winced, but didn’t have the strength to jerk or pull away.  He tried, very slowly, to roll his head away from the sensation, but only made it as far as making a decision before his poor, muddled head exploded in agony.  Joe let out a helpless groan and slumped a little bit.  He couldn’t remember why his head hurt so much…or much of anything, really. 

He tried to lift a hand up to touch his face, but went cold deep down to his core when he realized he couldn’t.  It wasn’t pain that hampered him this time.  He realized sharply that not only did he not know where he was or how he got there, but he was tied up.  Joe had to suppress a panicking impulse to throw up and peeled his eyes open a little wider.  The light still hurt his poor, aching head, but he wasn’t even thinking about that now.  There were bigger problems that needed solving.

As he dared to look around, breathing shallowly, he saw that he was in his warehouse.  It looked like he’d been pushed into a corner where some of the roofing panels had rusted out which explained the stark sunlight directly in his face.  He was in a place he considered safe…although its continued safety was questionable.  He tried to weakly turn his head to take in the rest of it and nearly stopped breathing.

Kevin was there.

He was just there with a horrible parody of his usual smirk on his face.  He was sitting cross-legged on Joe’s bed, a pry-bar across his knees. 

Memory hit Joe like a sledgehammer and he remembered suddenly the walk to the warehouse, going through the last of his things he wanted to take back to his new home and then the pain in the back of his head.  He squinted and imagined he could just faintly see a smear of blood on the pry-bar Kevin held.  He had his answers about what had happened to him now and he was beginning to wish he had never asked them.  Despite all that, there were more to ask still.

“Why…?” he half-whined from between dry lips.

Kevin pushed himself to his feet with a rolling panther grace that seemed somehow familiar.  Joe couldn’t place it.  He pushed backward sharply when Kevin started to pad towards him, swinging the pry-bar lazily.  The sudden movement hurt his head afresh and he groaned.  The other man reached his side no matter how hard he tried to shuffle away and grabbed at his curls, pulling his head back so that Joe would have to look at him. 

Joe smelled dirt and felt a tiny flutter of hope.  Was Mal outside, waiting to save him?

He was broken out of his thoughts when hulking Kevin gave him a little shake by his hair.

“Eyes on me,” Kevin barked and then lowered himself to kneel in front of Joe, “Now then, you want to know why? Okay.  Fine.  Because I was only working at that hell-hole for you and I got tired of waiting.  You slipped up and I made a move.”

“What?” Joe asked with a furrow in his brow.

Contrary to what popular films tried to tell you about getting knocked unconscious, coming back to fighting fit immediately after waking just didn’t happen.  Joe was still drifting, his head smarting and his thoughts jumbled as if they would never make sense again.  Another shake had his brain rattling even more and he was ashamed of the whimper that escaped his lips.

“Don’t you get it? You didn’t go straight home with your babysitter tonight, so I figured it was my only chance.  Don’t know why the stupid Alpha you belong to hasn’t mated you yet, but their loss is my gain, right?” Kevin leered at Joe.

Fear threaded into Joe’s heart.  The smell of dirt…that wasn’t Mal.

“No…” he whispered, unable to raise his voice out of shock.

Suddenly, Kevin had a meaty hand wrapped around his jaw, squeezing and forcing him to look straight at him.

“You won’t say no to me again or I’ll break your jaw, you got it?” the man snarled at him.

Joe couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

“I only came to this miserable city because my brother sent word that there was an unbonded Omega running around here.  I came to find him and he wound up dead on doorstep.  He’d done a good enough job, though.  He’d been around you enough that your scent had gone live.  I followed it to that trashy little shithole you people call a bar and your smell was all over it.  I figured I’d ask for a job there, wait for you to come back…almost gave up on you to be honest,” Kevin elaborated, stroking over Joe’s cheek with his thumb.

For his part, the smaller man could only listen, totally dumbstruck.

“Then you sauntered back in and you reeked.  Clearly you’d been around another Alpha long enough to get your scent markers going good and strong.  I was so angry I wanted to kill you when you first came back around but then I realized your scent hadn’t changed.  You weren’t mated yet,” the more Kevin said, the worse it seemed to get.

He cut himself off and grinned, awful and feral, at Joe, “So, do you know why you’re here?”

Joe’s eyes narrowed and he shook his head.  He could guess at a few things Kevin wanted, but he didn’t dare to.  Besides, something told him that the massive man would take delight in telling him.  He didn’t necessarily want to make the Alpha happy, but when someone had their hand wrapped around the bones of your jaw, you tended to be a little nicer.

“Well, Joe, you’ve already been around me for a few weeks.  You’re getting closer to a heat, baby doll.  I’m just going to keep you here for a little while longer and then you’ll be in heat and begging for me, won’t you?”

Panic ripped through the smaller man on levels he hadn’t experienced since his childhood.  It turned him a little savage.  He bit down hard on the hand that was holding his face, done with niceties considering what he’d just been told.  Kevin let out a yell and fell back, clutching his hand.  While he was occupied with that, Joe lashed out and kicked him as hard as he could, sending the Alpha sprawling back.  Now was the time! He stood up on legs that had been wobbly only a moment before, adrenaline lending him strength, before making a dash for the door.

He only made it a foot before the chain binding his hands went taut, nearly dislocating his shoulders and sending him back onto his ass with a howl of pain.

He’d been chained to the warehouse wall and never realized it.

Joe lay on the warehouse floor, panting and struggling with the chain around his hands as Kevin stood slowly, towering with fury.  He stalked over to where his captive was lying on the ground, grabbing one of his injured shoulders and hauling him up by it.  When Joe started to yell in pain, he slammed a hand over his mouth and squeezed hard, daring the other to bite again.  When the bones in Joe’s jaw ground together painfully, he let out a muffled yelp.

Kevin leaned forward and hissed in his ear, “Here’s EXACTLY how it’s going to be, you arrogant shit.  You are going to stay chained up RIGHT here until you go into heat.  Then I am going to fuck you until you bleed and you know the best part? You will BEG me to do it.  Then you’ll be mine and I can start teaching you some goddamn manners.”

He threw him hard to the floor, “That’s the best part about you unbonded Omegas.  You’ll throw yourselves at anyone once your heat hits whether you like me or not.  Then it’s all over.”

The bigger man walked over to Joe’s bed and ripped up a bit of the sheet before coming over to his captive and tying it around his head, gagging him with it.  Once he was finished, he slapped Joe lightly on the cheek and wandered off elsewhere. 

Once he was gone for a moment, Joe had time to think.  He wasn’t in too much trouble, surely.  The situation looked pretty dire, but Annie would know something was up when he didn’t call to get picked up and he wasn’t at the bar.  Sue would figure it out when neither he nor Kevin showed up for their next shift.  She was smart and she’d definitely be able to put two and two together.  Annie would probably call Mal and then the other would come and rescue him if he couldn’t figure a way out of this first.  He forced his breathing to calm down and reminded himself that everything would be okay.

Except…he’d never told Sue where he lived because he’d been afraid to let her in and desperate to keep his privacy.  He’d never told Mal or Annie where he lived and kept his things because he’d been positive that one day he’d escape and he’d need his possessions once he picked up and left again.  The realization was a shock and hit him in a wash of dread.  Of course, the cavalry would muster and they would come, but they’d never find him.  He’d become too good at hiding himself over the years.  He also knew that, even if he was giving off a strong scent now, they couldn’t follow that.  The ocean air would carry it away in its damp embrace…it had to be the only reason Kevin couldn’t find his way here without following Joe.

Unable to yell and completely hidden away, Joe understood just how perfectly he’d crafted his own prison.

~~~

To say that Sue had been surprised when Annie had showed up at the bar a few hours after Joe had left was a pretty big understatement.  She had just been locking up when the woman had strolled up, looking as pretty as always, though oddly without the car she usually drove in tonight.

"No car tonight?" Sue asked, eyebrow aloft.

Annie winked, "No pet, I felt like some fresh air.  The cold does wonders for rosy cheeks, so I hear."

“Did Joe forget something?” she had asked curiously over her shoulder.

Annie had stopped and stared at her oddly as if she’d spoken in another language entirely.  Sue felt her stomach swoop at that look.  Something wasn’t right.

“What do you mean, darling? Is Joe not here?” Annie asked in a tone that suggested she already knew the answer but was hoping for another one.

Sue turned to face her completely, “Annie, Joe said he’d call you to pick him up.  We closed the bar down early tonight.  Hell, I’m only still here because I had some back-log paperwork Jonah wanted me to do.”

Sue watched as the normal brightness of Annie’s eyes went hard in less than a second.  Despite her beauty-queen looks and flippant attitude, Annie had a terrifyingly efficient brain and she rarely hesitated to use it.  The barmaid watched as the Englishwoman pursed her lips and pulled out her phone, tapping away at it with nails that suddenly seemed dangerously sharp.  She was probably looking for a call from Joe and when she clearly didn’t find one, she looked up to Sue.

“Did he say anything else before he left?” Annie asked, dropping all pet-names.

The younger woman nodded, “Yeah…he said he wanted to pick some things up from his old house.”

“And where exactly is his old house?” the blonde woman asked in a tone that had gone hard without accusing.  She just wanted answers.

“I don’t know, Anne.  He never told me and he never invited me over or anything,” Sue didn’t bother saying she was sorry.  Her tone conveyed that well enough and now was not the time to mince words.

Annie pinched her sinuses sharply and seemed to be trying to keep herself firmly under control.  After a minute, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes.  Suddenly, the phone was out again and she was tapping on it before holding it up to her ear.  Sue could vaguely hear a dial tone from the other end before there was a click. 

Annie started talking, quick with urgency, “Mal, arrange to be on the next flight back to El Otro International.  Joe is missing.”

There was a growling voice at the other end that Annie cut straight over, “He didn’t run away, Mal.  I wouldn’t have called you if he did.  I think he’s been taken.  I smell Alpha here.”

There was a click as if the person on the other end had hung up suddenly.

“…That was rude,” Sue said with a frustrated expression.

Annie just shook her head, “Don’t worry too much about that.  It means he’s on his way.”

“Okay…” Sue replied, drawing out the vowels sarcastically, “What was that Alpha thing? Old ‘friend’ of yours?”

“Just the opposite, my dear.  Come, we’ll go for a walk and I’ll explain things as best I can on the way,” Annie’s voice was imperial.

Feeling exhausted and unsure, but with no other choice, Sue followed Annie as they went off into the darkness of the early morning in El Otro.  She hated being bossed around, but her concern for perhaps her only friend outweighed her pride.  She could already tell it was going to be a long end to an even longer night.


	13. Halves of the Hourglass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize to all of you for disappearing. Training and rehearsals all picked up in a big way and I got a little swept up in it all. I tend to just get home and collapse at the end of the night!
> 
> Also, a quick note on how Altera is written: I write it all myself, typically in one long session (per chapter). Each chapter has several edits as I read and re-read and discover details that need patching or things that need fixing, et cetera. Sometimes the wrong edit will go up (big thanks to Ty for catching one of my editing errors in "No More Safe Houses"), but I try very hard to keep it all straight. None of this is beta-ed and I write it all for fun (though it's a lot more fun when I know my readers enjoy what they get!).

ALTERA

CHAPTER TWELVE  
Halves of the Hourglass

Sue had taken the new information about her friend with the same sort of deadpan, worldly grace she took most things after Annie had spilled everything in a thorough, albeit rushed, manner.  She’d simply curled up her nose as Annie talked, walking them both as fast as she could towards the apartment (and, it so happened, the car), and informed her that she’d believe it.  After all, nobody as weird as ‘Coffee Stain’ could possibly be human.  Her cavalier acceptance of what she’d been told, something which had staggered Joe so much it had driven Mal to the other side of the country, had Annie smirking despite the situation.  Still, there was a curious tilt to her eyebrows.

The human bartender looked over at her as they finally made it back to the car, catching the incredulous expression, “I’ll explain if you tell me what you plan to do now.”

“Well Susan, we’re going to get in the car and drive to El Otro airport for the moment,” Annie explained, unlocking the car and sliding into the driver’s seat.

“Wait…we’re not gonna go look for Joe?” Sue asked, looking alarmed.

“It would be pointless just now.  He left the bar hours ago and the city masks scents so effectively unless you’re right on top of them or unless a place is utterly saturated.  We’d waste time wandering and possibly scare the Alpha into hurting him or hiding him even further away.  So I’m going to drop you off at the airport, drive back and then search on foot.  By then he should have settled in enough that either he’s gotten sloppy or his scent’s nice and thick,” the Englishwoman explained, gesturing for Sue to get in the passenger’s seat.

“What if something bad happens to Joe BEFORE that?” The bartender challenged, frowning deeply and not budging.

Annie paused for a moment.  Her face was hard and yet, there was caring in her eyes that was there for only an instant...just long enough for Sue to see it.  This wasn’t a callous move on the Englishwoman’s part, it was genuinely what she thought would be best move, tactically speaking.  More than that, there was a tiny pinch of fear nestled in one of the few lines that had furrowed her brow.  It was a shared concern then.

Her lips thinned to being almost bloodless, “Joe isn’t weak.  He’ll survive.  We just can’t risk making it worse.”

“…Okay,” Sue conceded the point.

“So these Alpha guys smell like dirt, right? Was that guy who got killed on my doorstep one?” She continued, tapping a currently poison-green nail against the dash board.

“If it’s the same one Mal told me about, then yes,” Annie said, waiting with a tight patience for Sue to just get IN, damnit.

Giving up, Sue climbed in and started buckling herself in, “Then why was HIS smell so strong?”

“Because he hadn’t left yet, pet.  Turns out he’d been hiding in one of the unoccupied downstairs apartments if what Mal told me was true,” Annie shrugged and peeled out, tires squealing a bit.

“…Does Mr. Fitzroy tell you everything?” Sue asked, wondering how on earth on person had so much information.

It earned her a softly affectionate look from the other woman, “Very nearly, dear.”

“I know it’s a weird question and all, but why?” Sue asked next, wincing as Annie’s driving got them out onto the main road in a less than safe way.

“Well, we were together for quite awhile after he first came to El Otro.  He was new and lost and still pining his poor little heart out for his missing Omega.  He needed a foot-hold in business here and he needed someone to ground him until he got his head back together.  I gave him both and we were good together.  Of course, we both knew it wouldn’t be permanent, but he was lonely, terribly lonely and out of place.  It was so funny how all the tabloids thought we were going to get married,” Annie sighed.

Sue watched her shrewdly, pushing a long strand of hair out of her own face before venturing, “…Did you want to marry him?”

Annie’s forced-cheery expression shuttered a bit and turned slightly maudlin, but she continued to smile despite the tension of the evening crowding in around them.  They hit a long stretch of highway and likewise the silence stretched between them.  The blonde woman’s long fingers drummed softly on the steering wheel as she thought about how to answer.

At last, she settled for honesty, “I was incredibly fond of him, but that’s just the way our world works.  He wasn’t meant for me.  Alphas are made for Omegas in the end, and I knew that.  So really, I was just sort of marking a place for Joe.”

“That fuckin’ sucks,” Sue announced, folding her arms over her stomach, “But…do you think Joe’ll be okay?”

The English Beta nodded firmly, “It will all be fine once Mal gets here.  His chemistry and Joe’s are extremely ‘compatible’ so his senses are more attuned to him than mine are.  He’ll find him and if he’s hurt we’ll kill the one who did it.”

Reassured, Sue leaned back in her seat, “You guys sure don’t mess around, do you?”

“It’s not in our nature, no.  Now, you were going to explain to me how you’re so shockingly calm about all of this,” Annie reminded.

“Well…to be honest, I thought I was a little crazy at first.  There were just...there were times when someone would get too close to Joe or something would freak him out and his eyes would go all…black.  He never realized it was happening, I don’t think.  It freaked me the fuck out the first few times I saw it, but, well I dunno, could YOU be scared of him?” the younger woman explained, ending it all with another blasé little shrug.

Smirking softly, Annie could only shake her head and drive on through the night.

~~~

In the end, Annie had found out what terminal Mal’s flight would be arriving at and she’d left Sue there to wait for him.  They both knew it would be at least four hours before he arrived, but someone needed to stay and watch (just in case) and somebody needed to be beating the streets for any sign whatsoever of Joe.  Sue remembered Mal’s face enough to be the one to wait at the airport and Annie had the Alteran senses to take into the dawn-light city and hunt for her friend. 

As she left Susan behind, driving back towards _Straddlin Sally’s_ Annie was aware of how narrow her window of opportunity was.  She’d only have a precious few hours before the rest of the city woke up and started moving around to get a mostly clear impression of the scent. 

Once El Otro was active there was no chance in hell of finding a trail that day.

She parked the car at the bar and hopped out, looking around for anyone else before letting her features shift.  An Alteran’s senses were always keen, but they were doubly so when in their natural form.  As the world sharpened around her, Annie closed her eyes and tilted her head back, inhaling deeply and trying to catch something, anything she could use.  Every few seconds, she’d catch the faintest whisp of something, but holding onto the scent was like trying to strangle smoke in her fist.  Unsure, she jogged off in a direction where she thought the smell was stronger, feeling the seconds ticking away.

If she couldn’t find anything now, it would still be an entire day’s wait even after Mal arrived.  After all, they couldn’t go hunting in the daylight without exposing themselves (the streets would be brimming with far too many people)…and if Joe really HAD been taken as they suspected, there would likely be killing to do. 

The window of opportunity was shrinking so quickly and there was nothing Annie could do but guess and run.

~~~

Five hours later and there was nothing.

Five hours later and Sue was sitting with her hands wrapped around a cup of burnt coffee long gone cold, staring into the middle distance.

She could have packed for a month’s vacation with the bags under her eyes, but her heart was still beating like a frantic hummingbird against her ribs.  She was caught in an uncomfortable limbo between frantic worry and stagnant inactivity.  There was nothing she could do but sit and drink coffee and try not to fall asleep while her friend’s health and safety were on the line.  At about hour two her hands had started shaking viciously around her second or third cup of coffee and a nervous mother had been quick to stand and hustle her child away.  After spending most of hour three pacing, she’d settled into this state.

She barely even heard Annie come up behind her when the Beta Alteran finally managed to drag herself back to the airport, looking somewhat worse for the wear.  Her blonde hair was slightly askew, her shoulders slumped just enough to throw off her normally nonchalant posture and she just seemed defeated overall. 

They sat in silence.

Five hours later and a flight had just landed, the exit disgorging a slew of passengers all looking for family or stretching stiff backs and yawning.  It was all so terribly normal, from the bright faces reaching for young children to the weary, red-eyed businessmen searching for a sign-board with their name on it.  Only one figure stood apart, shoulders squared up and head held high, somehow managing a stately air in the midst of all the pedestrian ebb and flow.  Dark golden hair was pushed back from a regal brow and eyes like shards of sea-glass swept over the crowd before alighting on Sue and Annie.  The former straightened up a bit under the heat of that laser focus, feeling as if her soul had been peeled out for examination.

Moving in long, quick strides, Mal was suddenly in front of them, carrying an aura of danger with him that had Sue backing away a bit.

He nodded his head politely to her, “Miss Jeffries.”

Then, he turned to Annie with an air of barely-controlled violence, “Why don’t you and I go get the car while Miss Jeffries waits for us out front?”

Locking eyes with Mal, Annie rose, regaining her poise, “Sue, dear? Be a love and go wait? We won’t be a moment.”

With that she turned and strode out, Mal on her heels.  Sue was only too happy to wait on the sidelines after seeing that, knowing that whatever the big man had to say to Annie wasn’t going to be pleasant.

~~~

Mal and Annie kept a leash on themselves until they were in the mostly empty area of the car park where the Englishwoman had left her vehicle.  She had foreseen this confrontation and planned accordingly.  Mal stopped a few feet away, giving her space to turn and square up to him.  Her chin tilted up and he looked down with anger simmering behind his features.  Both of their eyes had gone black as pitch, their Alteran selves burning through the human deception from the heat of their emotions.

“I trusted you to keep him safe,” Mal snarled, speaking first.

“You honestly think I could have expected this? The cheek of that Alpha?” She defended herself, taking a step forward.

“Do NOT try to say that you are not culpable for this in EVERY way.  If my mate is hurt at all…” he threatened, his voice a low rumble.

“Don’t you dare try that Alpha intimidation bollocks on me, Mal Fitzroy.  You’d already killed an Alpha in your territory.  That should have been a clear warning.  You know how bloody unpredictable this was.  You couldn’t imagine another Alpha would be that stupid so soon, same as me and you know it!” Annie rebuffed, glaring hard.

She couldn’t say later that she hadn’t expected the punch, but she could say that she hadn’t remembered Mal being quite that fast.  The strike drew blood from the corner of her lip and she took a breath, standing completely still and letting the pain settle.  After she'd had a moment to steady her head and her temper, she lifted her hand to dab at it.

Annie couldn’t have sounded more unimpressed if she tried, “Do you feel like a big Alpha then?"

The look Mal gave her in return was mutinous.

The Beta refused to have any of it, "Are you going to keep wasting your energy on blaming me or are we going to go get Sue and focus on saving Joe tonight? Come on, Mal…think like the clever man I know you are and not like the stupid Alpha your fear is turning you into.”

“I’m not afraid,” he barked, sounding less angry and more frustrated this time.

“Of course you are,” Annie snorted, walking over to the car and unlocking it, “The young man you’ve become very fond of over the last few weeks is in danger and you’re terrified of seeing him hurt.  I sympathize, I do, and I am sorry beyond words that he was taken on my watch, but letting the Alpha control you is only going to turn you into a monster like it did before…and if you fuck up this time…you could lose Joe forever.”

That actually seemed to sink in for Mal, though not in a visible way.  He still looked edgy, but the Beta knew him well enough to smell the subtle change in his scent…to see how he actually allowed anxiety to show in his eyes rather than plastering rage over the top of it.  She had him now, but he still wasn’t moving to the car, frozen and trying to beat down his beast.  She had to get him moving.

“…And Mal? If you lose him this time, it will be to a far worse fate than simply being homeless.”

Just like that, she had him.

Mal was moving again, climbing into the passenger’s seat of the car next to his old friend and buckling up.  Breathing an imperceptible sigh of relief, Annie started the car and pulled out to collect Sue.  As soon as they had her, they could drive back to Mal’s apartment in El Otro’s business district, sequestered away in a park.  They could recoup, sleep, get themselves recovered from a long night and make plans.  They would ready themselves for the evening and as soon as the sun went down and the good, working folk went home they could go to the streets and hunt down whatever bastard had spirited their friend away.

She only prayed, very silently and to herself, that they wouldn’t be too late.

**Author's Note:**

> I know I haven't finished the Grimm/Caprica crossover I started ages ago. I'm not even close. These characters just haven't left me alone, so it's time to take them out and play.


End file.
